Losing Faith
by WitheringSage
Summary: After a near fatal car crash, Rowan Faith Danvers, future Keeper of the Covenant, must contend with new demons while protecting her brothers. And she meets a new guy in town whose faith might need some healing of its own. -Sequel to "Saving Faith"
1. Final Destination

_A/N: All righty, so I'm back with the sequel. Didn't take long. I'm glad several people enjoyed the first one, I hope this one does not disappoint. So, Rowan is dealing with the aftermath of the car crash, lots of angst. Her fate as a Keeper is touched upon in this story, I haven't forgotten about that. There is a new romantic interest for Rowan in this story. Her and Reid's getting together won't be *that* easy. :o) But I promise not to turn their developing romance into a soap opera. No sleeping with people just for spite. I hate when people do that, ya know? Let's see...thinking if I forgot anything... _

_Disclaimer: I own nothing that appeared in The Covenant.  
_

**I. Final Destination**

_I escaped my final moment  
But it's turning back at me  
Every second I can hear it, breathing  
I can't stand the fear inside me  
Cause it's leading me astray__  
And it will be my ending.  
-Within Temptation_

_**Sophomore Year**_**  
**

_Abrasive granite. _

_The screech of tires. _

_Rubber burning. Gas leaking. _

_Sirens. Screams. _

_The bitter taste of blood, copper drink of death. _

_Chaos…_

"Rowan!"

She was having trouble breathing; something had slammed into her diaphragm.

"Rowan!"

Her eyes snapped open like a tortured rubber band. She saw her brother Caleb looking at her with a worried face. He'd turned on the dim lamp by her bed and she had to blink for her eyes to adjust. Her sides hurt every time she took a breath. Was it real pain or psychosomatic? Like the throbbing in her right hip that trailed down to her toes. The ache in her left clavicle, and the booming on the right side of her skull that had been traumatized in the crash. Those bones had healed, but whatever had been crushed deep in her core had not, that part of her was crippled.

Absently, Rowan scratched the scars around her mid-section. Some of them were lighter than others, but the eight inch one on her lower back was the worst. The doctors said she was lucky not to have any spinal damage. Sure enough.

"You okay?" he asked her, touching her forehead with the back of his hand.

"Yeah," she said, her voice scratchy.

Bruce Lee the ferret skittered across her lap. He was a new addition to their eccentric family. A dark sable coated critter who liked to wrestle with Bubbe and steal things from around the house, and cuddle with Ernie. But that was a ferret for you.

Caleb didn't buy her "yeah." He didn't blame his sister for being depressed after the car accident. Depressed and scared. Rowan had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed anti-anxiety medication. She'd also been given pain-killers which she never took. Caleb knew because when Rowan wasn't around he would go into her room and count them. He knew he should trust his sister, but a part of him deep down worried that she would take the same way out of pain as his mother. Evelyn had remained sober for most of the duration of Rowan's recuperation. But after Roz and Gabriel left back to New Orleans, Evelyn's nightly drinking and resumed.

"I'll get you some water." He went into her bathroom and filled the glass by her sink with cold liquid. He went back and handed it to her, sitting on the side of her bed. Bruce Lee made his way on his lap and turned over so Cay could scratch his belly.

"Thanks," she said.

It was raining outside and that was all the sound there was for a few minutes.

Rowan cleared her throat. "I'm not going to check out on you, Cay," she said. Her head tilted to the side. "I know you've been counting those pain killers the doc gave me."

Something like a rueful chuckle came from him but he didn't apologize.

"You're worried. I know. But I don't like anything with a sedative effect." And she didn't. She didn't mind the anti-anxiety pills because it helped her from going bat-shit every time she had to get into a car, but the pain killers…no. It was too easy to slip into that oblivion, not because she wanted to kill herself, never that, but because she would have killed for a good night's sleep. "I'd never do that, Caleb."

He nodded and took her hand. "Yeah, I know."

"I think I'll be off for a while. But I'm trying." She was. Rowan hated freaking out if she had to get into a car. She drove herself on her motor scooter whenever she possibly could, even if it was raining, and no one was going to stop her. She could manage just fine on the streets on her bike, but not in a car. Caleb had gotten his driver's license almost a month ago and she'd yet to take a ride in his silver clown car as she called it. She would start falling into that dark place where those memories of the car crash were stored, and a panic attack would follow. Sometimes she didn't even need to see a car, or hear a backfire, or smell gasoline or burnt rubber for that to happen.

Rowan had only started school two days ago, which had been a Monday. After she'd woken up from her three week coma at the end of June, she had stayed in the hospital until some of the casts came off. Then came the painful and intense physical therapy. Her hip, her tibia, ribs, clavicle. Her physical therapist came to her, and it was at times like those where having money came in handy because expensive equipment could be brought to you. Anything to avoid getting in a car, she told herself.

So her doctor had deemed her fit to return to school. She'd missed the first three weeks but she wasn't too behind. Homework helped her focus even though her mind wandered in class. She was used to people staring at her and whispering. Some people were dying to ask about the crash, Rowan could see it in the pulsing energy around them, but they were waiting an appropriate amount of time, however long that would be. Surely they'd read the details in the paper and seen it on the news. The rescue had been televised.

It was three in the morning now and Rowan felt the dregs of her nightmare tapering off. She put the empty glass of water on the nightstand.

"I'll let you get back to sleep," Caleb said.

She gave him a tired smile. "Thanks."

Caleb leaned down and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Love you, Row."

"Love you, too."

----

Stepping through the doors of Spensers Academy wasn't as bad as it had been the first year around. Maybe because Rowan was dealing with things much heavier than what the school contained. Toby had been happy to see her, and vice versa. It didn't mean the school was any brighter though, just borderline irrelevant. Rowan headed to her first period class with Hunter by her side. She was favoring her bum leg. Rainy weather did not a painless body make. Oh well.

Hunter, Dizzy, and Pinkie sat with her on the lowest row so she wouldn't have to climb any of the stairs. The teacher droned on about something that happened centuries ago and Rowan's mind wandered. She wished there was a window nearby where she could focus her attention. Good thing Bruce Lee was here. He deftly exited her backpack and settled on her lap where the teacher couldn't see him. Rowan didn't care so much if someone behind her was looking, she just used a bit of a magic shield so anyone who had a problem with the animal wouldn't see. So all through class Bruce Lee kept her occupied. Her long hair veiled the ferret even more.

When the bell rang they had ten minutes to get to their next class. She had to go to her locker to change books and Hunter went with her as Dizzy and Pinkie's class was in the very opposite direction. Winding the locker combo by rote she opened it with a soft mental clang. Bruce Lee was wound around her neck and shoulder, her hair covering him.

"Did you really bring him to school?" Pogue asked.

Reid, Tyler and Caleb were with him.

"Well, you're not seeing things," she replied, not looking at him as she got her Chemistry book. The attention brought the ferret out and his head was sticking out from her hair. "Don't excite him," she warned. "You know how he gets."

Reid snorted a laugh. "You know…he could give a good scare to…"

Rowan looked at him drolly. "No."

"Miss Danvers!"

She groaned in irritation, but turned to the school counselor with at least an amiable look on her face. "Hi, Mr. Saunders." He was a certified psychiatrist who'd fallen from grace at his last school, his sordid history hidden from the students and their parents, probably most of the faculty. Her brothers didn't know as she hadn't bothered to tell them…or anyone for that matter.

Mr. Saunders smiled at her. Most of the girls at school thought he was one of the hottest adults around, and the guys thought he was cool.

"Remember to come talk to me before lunch, all right?" he reminded her with a grin.

Rowan nodded. "I didn't forget."

"Great," he said. "Study hard, you guys."

"You don't like him much, do you?" Tyler asked when the adult was out of earshot.

She shrugged nonchalantly. Why upset them with the news? "He's one of those shrinks who write on a yellow pad and ask 'how does that make you feel'? I prefer my group therapy. At least they know shit." Her profanity was a rare thing. Something that had been emerging more often since the car crash. She shut her locker and spun the dial.

Rowan wasn't paying attention and practically collided with Aaron Abbot when she backed up. Her book fell to the group with a heavy thud.

"Watch where you're going, Abbot," Reid snapped.

"My fault, I wasn't watching where I was going," Rowan said. She was ready to retrieve her book but Aaron had already snatched it up and was handing it back to her.

"Here. Sorry," he said, and was walking away before she could say anything back.

"Okay…what the hell was that?" Reid uttered.

"I'm a semi-cripple, Reid," Rowan said as if he didn't know. "You can't be mean to a semi-cripple."

"You're not a cripple," Tyler said.

Rowan smiled. "I know."

Images flashed through her mind, making her step falter.

"It's cool, Row," Hunter said in a low, soothing voice. He had his arm around her waist to steady her.

She did know she wasn't a cripple. She was luckier than the other three people in the car crash. Diana, who was driving. She had been three days away from getting her veterinary technician's license. She had died instantly, leaving behind her two year old son and a husband who had been holding down two jobs so she could go to school. Then there was Dan who had been in the passenger seat. He was paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. Rowan still spoke to him occasionally and he was keeping positive. And Lisa had been sitting next to Rowan. Nineteen years old and in school to be a veterinarian. She had hung on for a couple of days in the ICU, but didn't make it.

"Do you want to go home?" Caleb asked her, but her breaths were coming in short, and her eyes were filling with tears right in front of everyone.

"I'm okay," she sniffed. "I'm fine." She wiped away her tears with the sleeves of her school blazer and kept walking, knowing her brothers had those concerned looks on their faces, but not seeing them. Hunter's arm around her waist told her she was still here, the five guys surrounding her, and the ferret around her neck a tangible sign that she wasn't alone.

* * *

_I have a pic of Bruce Lee the ferret if you're interest. LOL._


	2. Winds of Change

**II. Winds of Change**

_I guess nothing turned out like I planned  
Everything's sure to fall out of hand  
And it takes a lot to find it  
And it takes a lot, I know  
To believe that there is meaning  
Inside this moment  
__In the winds of change  
-Lifehouse_

Rowan packed up the last of the glazed donuts and wiped her hands. She took off the white apron and hung it up.

"All done, Lacey!" she said.

"Oh, great!" Lacey was a plump woman in her early-forties who owned Ipswich's bakery. Rowan had been coming here since she was a kid, and a couple of weeks ago had gotten a part time job three days a week and sometimes on the weekends. She liked to try out new recipes and let the public sample them. "This is wonderful," Lacey told her.

Rowan smiled and shrugged just as thunder boomed outside.

Lacey frowned. "Such rain. You should get on home, dear, before it starts to pour."

Rowan nodded. "I'll see you Friday!"

Outside the breeze picked up, she straddled her motor scooter, put her helmet on and tried to start it, but the thing stuttered and the engine made a squeaky sound. Her heart instantly leapt to her throat and she silently pleaded for it to work. Several more tries in vain. She was not going to call anyone to pick her up; she would walk first if she had to. Rowan looked at the car garage across the street, knowing it was about to close but hesitant to ask Billy to look at her scooter at the last minute. She bit her lip, mulling her options, but fear of getting in a car won out. Rowan steered her scooter across the street and into the car garage. She steeled herself first, preparing for the scent of gasoline and the possible whirring of tools.

"Billy?" she called.

----

He saw her for the first time at the beginning of September walking with some guy. It was like something in the movies when you see someone and your heart stops, the wind blows and the leaves rustle on the ground. And you hate it, because you've never felt anything like that before and you suddenly find yourself watching out for that face in the crowd. She came around more often now. At the bakery across the street on her blue motor scooter. She had long black hair, light brown skin, intense eyes.

It was cloudy today but Abel hardly felt the chill. He worked in Ipswich's car garage and lived in the small apartment above for a decent price. He mostly kept to himself, and since he wasn't a local by a long shot it made it more difficult to get acquainted with people. Not that he cared; he wasn't here to make friends.

The thunder boomed outside, all the louder because the garage door was open. He should close it before anyone got any ideas that they could get in at the last minute. Billy had told him to hold down the fort while he retrieved his eighty-year old mother from her home to take her to her weekly Bingo game. Abel wiped his hands off on a rag and chucked it aside. Just as he was about to close the garage door he saw the girl and his heart thumped oddly. Abel saw her try to start her scooter but from where he was standing he could clearly hear the malfunctioning contraption. A distressed look flooded her face like she was about to cry.

Abel wondered why she was so upset just because her scooter wouldn't start. But she was starting to look panicked. He heard the phone ring in the back and went to answer it. He answered the question the customer had and just as he was, once again, heading to close the garage door he heard her.

"Billy?"

"Billy isn't here," he said.

Rowan blinked at the guy standing in the shadows. He stepped out and walked towards her. He had to bypass a car to get to her. He was tall with olive skin, thick brown hair that touched his nape and brown eyes that held an odd yellow cast to them when hitting the light. He wore grease stained jeans and a gray t-shirt over his toned body. She'd known Billy had a new mechanic, but just hadn't seen him.

"Hi," she said. "Um…sorry, I was just looking for Billy, but since he's not here…"

"Something wrong with your scooter?" he asked, coming closer.

"Yeah, the engine's funny."

"Funny?" he cocked a brow. She was pretty up close, wearing jeans, Chucks, a fitted gray hoodie and a black coat that touched her knees, her nails were polished a bright purple. But she had pained eyes, like someone who'd seen too much for her years. Beautiful, really.

"It just won't start," Rowan said. She knew the bits and pieces of her scooter, but certainly was no mechanic. "Would you mind if I left this in the parking lot, and I'll come back tomorrow?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, just found himself staring at her. "Let me take a look at it," he surprised himself by saying.

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that. You were about to close," she said.

"It's okay," he said. He took the place beside her bike and began to tinker with it.

Rowan watched him, hoping that he could magically fix it so she wouldn't have to call anyone for a ride.

"What's your name?" she blurted.

He was kneeling down, and without looking at her he said, "Abel." He stood up. "I can fix it, going to take me about an hour, tops."

"You mean now?"

He half-smiled. "Yeah, now."

Rowan shifted so her weight was on her left leg, her hip was aching again. "I'm not…putting you out or anything am I?"

"No." He turned away so he could, finally, shut the garage door. He didn't need anymore people trying to come in. He was just doing her a favor, and he liked that she'd visibly relaxed when he said he could fix her scooter.

Abel went to work on her scooter and Rowan took a seat on the couch that was against the wall. She set her backpack down and placed it at her feet. God, she was tired. Her eyes felt scratchy, and the calm of working in the bakery was wearing off. She hadn't had any crying jags since last Wednesday, which was good. The nightmares still came though. There was no stopping them. Rowan dialed Caleb's cell phone to tell him she'd be home late.

Abel listened to her as he worked. He liked the sound of her voice, but her conversation was odd.

"Can you feed Ernie, Bubbe and Bruce Lee for me?" she was asking someone on the other line. "Yeah…no, my scooter crapped out on me, but Billy's new mechanic is fixing it for me…No, I don't need you to pick me up, he said it'd take an hour, tops…Yeah, I'm sure…Positive. Okay, bye Cay." Rowan looked at Abel who was diligently concentrating on his task.

It was after five and she could see through the high windows that the wind was picking up even more and she knew within five minutes the rain would start pouring. On a whim she took out her small photo album from her backpack and began to flip through it. The first page was of her, Ernie, Bubbe and Tyler the guinea pig. Then there was that picture of the five of them bald and smiling. The picture that she had been cropped out of by Reid's ex-girlfriend Christine, who had put it on a flyer and distributed it around the whole school. Oddly, this was the first time Rowan had thought about it in months, and no feelings emerged remembering it. Christine and Allison, who had known about it, still went to Spensers but she had no classes with them, and she did not know if Caleb still spoke to Allison…

An hour later, as Abel had predicted, he was finished with the girl's scooter. He fired it up and it purred wonderfully. He was about to tell her, but he looked over at the couch where she'd been sitting only to see that she had curled up on it and was fast asleep. He turned off the scooter before she could wake up. Now he didn't know what to do. When she had come in she'd looked tired and frenzied. Abel had seen that expression on people's faces and in their eyes after a traumatic situation. Abel found himself kneeling in front of her by the couch, seeing her closer than he ever had.

Her skin was flawless though she had dark circles under her eyes. Her eyelashes were long and luscious, her lips full and cherry-hued. The tightness that had been on her face had relaxed into a repose of contentment. Her breath was barely audible but with his hearing he could hear it, it was level and smooth. He felt an indescribable urge to reach out and brush away the wavy tendrils of her hair that were whispering across her face.

_Oh, get a grip, Abel. You idiot. What the hell are you thinking? _

His odd reaction to this girl was baffling and frustrating to him, and he didn't like it one bit. The last thing he needed was for his mind to be sidetracked by a pretty face. A beautiful face, he amended. She was definitely one of those people that stopped people in their tracks…actually no…she should have been, but there was something reclusive about her, and he had a strong feeling that she could easily hide herself from eyes that stared too intently.

A grumbly engine outside pulled into the parking lot and Abel knew Billy was back from chauffeuring his mother around from the Bingo Palace. Abel sensed the girl waking up so he moved away before her eyes could open. He was near her bike again when she sat up.

Rowan winced, regretting her tightly curled position which had exacerbated the ache in her hip, which was now stiff. Oh well. This too shall pass, she told herself. She rubbed her eyes and ran her fingers through her thick hair. She wondered how long she had slept, took a look at the wall clock. A good hour. Wow, that'd been the best sleep she had had in…well, since she'd come out of her coma. Odd and ironic to have slept soundly in a place that smelled like gasoline and was occupied by cars.

"Bike's done," Abel said.

Billy came in then bringing a hail of lashing rain. He stomped his heavy boots on the floor and took off his slicker. He was a big burly bald man with tough hands and a pirate's vocabulary.

"Raining like a bunch of pissing angels," he growled.

"Partying too hard last night," Rowan said, and Billy saw her.

"Rowan!" he grinned widely. "How ya doing, kid?"

She shrugged. "Okay."

Abel realized that he had never asked her for her name, but at least now he knew.

"Something wrong with your bike?"

Abel then explained to him the engine trouble. Etc.

"Ah…well that was mighty nice of you to work overtime," Billy said with a knowing look in his eyes at his young mechanic.

Abel studiously ignored him and handed Rowan her keys.

"Thank you," Rowan said. "Let me get my wallet…"

"No, it's fine," Abel interrupted. "Don't worry about it."

Billy cocked an eyebrow at him.

"No really, you worked overtime…" Rowan went on.

Abel waved off her thanks. "It's cool."

She still seemed uncertain. "Okay… Well, I really appreciate you doing this."

"Kid, you ain't seriously gonna ride home in this piss-storm are you?" Billy asked.

"I am," she replied. She gathered her things and buttoned up her coat.

"I guess there's no stoppin' ya…" Billy said. But he'd known the kid for years and didn't think it was safe for her to be out on her scooter at the moment.

"No stopping me," Rowan echoed.

Abel was opening the garage door for her.

"Drive safe, kid!" Billy said.

Rowan chuckled ruefully. "I'm the last person you need to say that to Billy." And she was off.

Billy sighed heavily. "Damn, poor kid."

The garage door shut with a clang.

"Why do you say that?" Abel asked against his better judgment, he couldn't help but be curious about her.

"Just seems to have one trial after another," Billy said, hanging up his slicker. "Cancer when she was kid, dad's dead, and a few months ago she was in a car crash. Two people dead, one guy paralyzed. Rowan was in a coma for three weeks, lotta broken bones." He shook his head.

_Guess that's why she doesn't want to get in a car_, Abel thought.

"Lotta people around here find her weird, but she's one of the nicest people you'd ever meet though," Billy added.

"Odd?" _Shut up, Abel!_

"Yeah, she's a real animal-lover. Always around with her dog, cat, and…well," –he scratched his stubbly chin - "she had a guinea pig, but he died some years back, but now she's got a ferret." He chuckled to himself. "Good kid." Then he turned to Abel. "Good kid."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Abel asked.

"Fixed her bike for free…after the garage was closed?"

"She would have walked home without it," Abel said. "The wind would have blown her away, she's so light."

"Noticed that, did ya?"

Abel sneered. "You don't have to look hard at her to see that."

"Yeah," Billy drawled. "She's got a pack of brothers, just so's ya know."

"How was bingo?" Abel deadpanned, knowing that'd shut Billy up.

"Smart ass…" Billy mumbled.

----

Rowan ran into the house to get out of the rain. Ernie, Bubbe and Bruce Lee had heard her arrival and were already running to greet her. Bruce Lee was popping up and down doing his ferret war dance. Still a new member of the household, he had not learned quite how to conduct himself when someone came through the door.

"How many times a day does he do that?" Reid complained.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "He's just happy."

She was approached by a hoard of boys that might have overwhelmed a lesser individual, but Rowan was used to it.

Tyler picked up Bruce and the ferret calmed down a bit, the animal having become quite taken with him.

Caleb gave her a look of disapproval. "You're soaked."

"You're going to get sick," Pogue added.

Hunter shrugged off Rowan's coat, and took her back pack.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Did they eat?"

Caleb nodded. "Bruce took some of his food…somewhere." His eyes glanced at wherever in the large household Bruce Lee was nesting various objects.

"And he stole my beanie," Reid added.

"Again? Don't leave it hanging around then," Rowan said. "You know he likes it."

Reid eyed the creature who was mucking up all Tyler's attention. He gestured that he wanted the ferret but instead of chastising the animal Reid smiled. "You're a thief, you know that? Klepto." And Bruce Lee made a happy squeak sound. "That's right, you're a klepto."

"He pretends he's all tough, but he's in love with Bruce Lee," Hunter said, smirking.

"It's great that you're all getting along," Rowan said. Knowing her brother was about to harangue her about her wet clothes she beat him to it, went upstairs to take a warm shower and put on some dry clothes that consisted of jeans, t-shirt, and knee-length belted sweater.

When she went back downstairs she had a bowl of warm tomato soup waiting for her, which was the extent of what any of the guys – except for Reid, who could barely make anything – could make without messing it up. She took her soup in her apothecary and the guys settled in there, too. The animals played hide-and-seek.

"So, what was wrong with your bike?" Tyler asked.

She shrugged. "Something wrong with the engine, but Abel fixed it."

Reid paused. "Who's Abel?"

"Billy's new mechanic," she replied.

"Yeah, he's good," Pogue said. "Knows his bikes."

Hunter nodded in agreement.

"He fixed your bike after the garage was closed?" Reid prodded.

"He wouldn't even let me pay," she said.

"How nice of him," Reid said dryly.

Rowan glared at him. "You think he had ulterior motives or something?"

"I didn't say that."

"Did he hit on you?" Caleb asked.

Rowan rolled her eyes to high heaven. "No, he did not."

"He's a loner," Hunter said. "One of those strong, silent types."

"Been paying attention, hmm?" Reid joked.

"Nah, he's more interested in a certain Cajun sorcerer," Pogue said.

"Wee, wee," Reid added with zero-finesse of the French language.

Hunter knew his brothers were about to gang up on him. "Shut up. Or else you're all doing a free-fall." But they sniggered anyway.

"Running up the phone bill," Pogue went on.

"You really like him?" Caleb asked.

"He's blushing," Tyler smiled.

Hunter was gay, but had dated Rowan for two years after they'd met in the fifth grade. He was telekinetic and came from a long line of supernatural peoples called Shepherds – a largely defunct name – who used to guard witches. Reid dubbed him an honorary member of the Covenant years ago, and he fit in their circle easily, like he had always been there.

Hunter decided to take the heat off of him. "Pogue finally made a move."

Reid scoffed.

"Don't be jealous, Reid," Pogue said with a smug grin.

"What?" Rowan asked.

"I have a date with Kate this Friday," Pogue said.

Rowan smiled wide and gave him a big bug. "Finally!"

"Took you long enough," Caleb said. "Only been staring at her for the past year."

"If I'd wanted to I would have already been there," Reid said.

"Then why haven't you?" Pogue snapped.

Reid sighed as if it should have been obvious. "Because I knew you liked her. I figured I'd let you have her."

"Don't be mean, Reid," Rowan said. "Are you going to borrow a car?"

Pogue was silent for a moment. "Why would I do that?"

"It's going to rain on Friday; you can't take her wherever on your bike."

"Why not?" Pogue asked, oblivious. "She likes my bike."

"Pogue E. Parry," Rowan began sternly, and he winced at his middle initial. Only the families and the people in this room knew his middle name, and he intended on keeping it that way. "She's probably going to get all dressed up in a skirt and heels, do her hair, and then you're going to make her get on your motorcycle in the cold rain, with a helmet on her head that will likely smudge her make-up. Did you think of that?"

His shoulders rose and fell slowly.

Rowan shook her head in mock disappointment. "I know you love your bike, but Kate's not the kind of girl who's going to love it as much as you."

Pogue looked stricken, and they laughed.

"You can take my car," Caleb said.

"The back seat is small," Reid pointed out, and he was met with a chorus of 'shut-ups' and pillows.

* * *

_**Hey, thanks for the positive feedback so far. :) Mega-appreciated.**_

_**I have a picture of 'Abel' up on my profile.  
**_


	3. The Lost Get Found

**III. The Lost Get Found**

_Don't let the lights go down__  
Don't let the fire burn out  
__Cause somewhere, somebody  
__needs a reason to believe  
__Why don't you rise up now?  
__Don't be afraid to stand out  
__That's how the lost get found__  
The lost get found  
-Britt Nicole_

_Rowan felt herself moving, the side of her head rested on something smooth. Her eyes opened and they met the sights of the road, cars, streetlights, stop signs. Her heart rate sped up, matching the speed of the speedometer. Higher and higher. How could she be back here? No one else in the car seemed to sense her unease or feel the impending danger. Her heart thudded in her head, and the further along they rode the closer they came to destruction._

"_Pull over!" she yelled. "Stop!" she screamed again when the driver paid her no heed. _

_Then they reached a stoplight and Rowan took that chance to try to get out of the vehicle. But when her hand reached for the door handle, it was gone. Her fingers clawed at where it should have been and her fingernails broke. _

_Sweat dripped down her brow and her throat was dry. She pounded on the window, but it was futile. Seeing the surroundings she knew it was inevitable. First Rowan heard the sound of horns honking angrily; the screech of tires; a car banging into another; more horns; then she felt the impact against her car. Her head smacked violently against the window, so hard she heard the window crack. The warm blood she felt first, then the searing pain in the side of her head._

_Something impaled itself through the windshield, sending shards and specks of glass flying. Burning pain lashed into her sides, bones broke, she felt every vicious crack and snap. Then the car stopped, and silence…Things were utterly still. It was quiet in the car, she heard herself trying to speak, just as she heard another's bubbly groan of pain._

_Through the blood that flooded her eyes and rained down her face, and the windows, she watched the setting sun, her shallow breaths ticking away the seconds. _

_A howl wailed in the distance, echoing her own pain, getting louder as the night replaced the day, and she saw eyes of glittery yellow just as her own eyes closed…_

Rowan awoke to her brother's gentle voice and soft prodding. "Hmm?"

"You were crying," he said. Caleb's hand reached out and wiped away the trickle of tears on her cheeks, his eyes filled with concern.

"I'm okay," she said.

Ernie whined and moved closer to her where Bubbe and Bruce Lee were up by her head. She turned her head to her digital clock to see that the neon green numbers read exactly midnight. She had gone to bed the previous night without even finishing her chemistry homework. She was glad she hadn't caught a chill from riding home in the rain. Even her mother had the wherewithal to chastise her about it, even insisted on taking her temperature for good measure. Rowan knew her mom was trying to take care of her only daughter as best and when she could, but sometimes Evelyn's own debilitating woes struck her like the heaviest stone, and she drank to numb that pain.

"You want to talk about it?" he asked. So far, Rowan had never uttered a word about the car crash itself, and it would have overly worried him if she had not been attending group-counseling.

Rowan shrugged.

He nodded, understanding.

"Want to watch some TV?" she asked. "I don't think I'll fall asleep just yet."

"Sure." Caleb stretched out on the other side of the bed, Bruce Lee relocating to his chest. He handed Rowan the remote and instead of checking the guide she just flipped through the channels.

It reminded him of when they were younger she, Ernie, Bubbe, and Tyler (until he died) would tip-toe into his room and gather on his bed for company. The days when their parents began to argue, which turned to silence, and their mother's drinking escalated into alcoholism.

"Ooh," Rowan said with a smile.

It was the original version of _The Wolf Man_ that had captured her attention. Rowan turned her head to her brother for his approval and he gave a what-the-heck grin with a simultaneous shrug. It was always amusing for them to watch movies about things they knew really existed in the world interpreted into something for mass-consumption. Rowan knew a pack of werewolves that lived in New Orleans and were old family friends of Nana's, and they thought _The Wolf Man_ was a decent flick. As opposed to some of the vampires Rowan had met who were sick to death (no pun intended) of society's views on vampires, and openly cursed _Dracula_ and the real vampire who had chatted with Bram Stoker and "inspired" the fictional character that was a never-ending stake in their ass. And don't get them started on some of the current vampire crazes unless you had an eternity to hear what they thought about them.

"His hair looks like a brillo pad," Rowan said, and Caleb laughed.

The howl Rowan had heard in her dream reverberated in her mind. The sound had been a pretty random addition to her nightmare. But she didn't forget how it had so genuinely reflected her pain.

----

Rowan had gotta a summons to meet with Provost Higgins before she went to lunch. She had no idea what this was about, and only hoped it wasn't for another chat about how she was re-acclimating herself to school. She had enough of that with Mr. Saunders and his obsequious attempts to empathize with her.

"You can go in now, Miss Danvers," the secretary said.

She picked up her messenger bag and entered the provost's office.

"Ah, Rowan, have a seat," he said amiably.

She waited patiently for him to begin, calculating his every movement. His congenial close-lipped grin, the hitch of his spectacles, then his laced fingers settling themselves on his desk.

"Miss Danvers," he began, "well, it's no secret that you are quite the animal enthusiast here at Spensers. But it has been brought to my attention that you perhaps have been bringing an animal with you to school, which is against school policy unless otherwise approved."

"I know the policy sir. But what animal?" she inquired.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, a rat to be precise."

For a moment Rowan was genuinely confused, because she was certain she had never brought a rat to school. Then she realized that someone must have mistaken Bruce Lee the ferret for a rat, and the utter misidentification of their subfamilies. Rowan knew every proper name, genus, family, order, phylum and class, in Latin or English, of every species so accurately that it brought her up short when someone mixed one up for another.

So Rowan schooled her features to hide her amusement and said: "Provost Higgins, I can say in all honesty that I have never brought a rat to this school."

----

"Ferrets are from the family Mustelidae or mustelids, and rats are murines," Rowan postulated.

They were all sitting outside for lunch, enjoying the rare sunshine because tomorrow the rain would return. Maria or Dizzy as she was affectionately called, Pinkie, Hunter, Pogue, Caleb, Tyler, Reid, and Kate who had joined them, were sitting around the circular table listening to Rowan's diatribe.

"Um…what's the difference?" Kate asked, looking around the table for help.

Reid groaned. "Don't get her started…" he muttered.

Rowan perfunctorily ignored him, always ready to educate someone on the Kingdom Animalia.

"Well, first," Rowan began, "rats are from the subfamily Murinae, which is the largest family of mammals with over six-hundred species. Ferrets are part of the Mustelidae family, which is a largest order of _carnivorous_ mammals," she emphasized. "Rats are Rodentia, characterized by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws."

As Rowan went on, Kate's eyes were starting to glaze over along with her gradual growing look of utter loss. Maria was listening intently, trying to follow; Pinkie had a smirk on his face, and Hunter and her brothers were just so completely used to this, but heeded her anyway.

"Basically," Reid interjected, cutting to the chase, "rats and ferrets look damned near nothing alike, and even _I_ can tell the difference."

Tyler snorted. "And if _he_ can, anyone who can't is blind or stupid."

"I'd have to agree with baby boy over here," Caleb said.

Reid let the slight against his intelligence pass simply for the sake of argument. He'd made his point.

"I wonder who told," Rowan thought idly.

"Someone just narced because they wanted to cause trouble," Hunter said. "Don't worry about it."

"Probably Abbot," Reid instantly accused, his cold blue eyes already scanning the quad for his arch-nemesis.

"That was so cool, Row. How do you memorize all that?" Dizzy asked.

"Don't worry," Pogue said, putting his arm around Kate, "a lot of us get lost when Rowan gets all technical." But he smiled at his little sister affectionately.

Rowan shrugged. "All right, I'll be quiet." She dug in her messenger bag for the bird and squirrel feed she kept in her locker. "See you guys later."

"Huh," Kate murmured as Rowan walked away to the edge of the woods. "I could never remember all of that."

"You're not the only one," Reid said, but his blue eyes were following Rowan with admiration. Despite his poking fun at her, he was always ready to listen to Rowan talk about animals because she was so beautiful and animated when she did. He didn't know anyone else who was so passionate about something.

"He is, like, so in love," Dizzy whispered to Pinkie.

"Oh, sweetie, you just do not know," he whispered back.

----

Abel had managed to stay on the fringe of Spensers Academy with no one noticing him. He held Rowan's small photo album in his hand, wondering what the hell he was doing here, coming all this way just to return it to her. He'd found it under the sofa she had fallen asleep on, he figured she'd probably dropped it or something. Either way, Abel had been left with it.

The previous day after he had eaten and showered he'd finally settled down for the night and found himself opening the photo album and flipping through it. The first picture was of a chubby-faced Rowan with a dog by her side. He assumed that this was the time of her life when she had had cancer. But yet, there she was, smiling wide with a German shepherd by her side that was the same size as her if not bigger. The next picture was of her, the dog, a cat and a guinea pig.

She aged in the pictures, as did the young boys in the album with her. These must have been the "pack of brothers" Billy had been referring to. The one with the same light brown skin as Rowan was probably her blood brother. The pictures of the animals were odd. Lots had the dog wearing antlers; there was a picture of the cat sitting on the stool in front of a large fish tank with its nose touching the glass, and the two fish up against the glass by the cat's nose. Then there was the ferret Billy had spoken about.

The pictures made Rowan all the more interesting to him. He had been surprised to see her in a Spensers' uniform, because he would not have taken her to be a rich kid at a posh school. But it wasn't like he came from the poor side of the tracks either. His family history was a bit complicated. And blooded.

So here he was now, about to approach the girl who wouldn't leave him alone, even in his dreams. He had watched her talking with her friends, then she had gotten up and walked to the edge of the woods. Birds were massing around her, and she had two small ones on her shoulder. He could see the rustle of leaves in the trees where the squirrels were congregating.

So he walked to her. She didn't notice him until the animals started to hide, and her head snapped in his direction; peeved, then befuddled, then a tentative smile spread on her face and she met him halfway.

"Hi," she said cautiously.

"Hi," he replied. Abel didn't say anything after that. He was seeing her in the sunlight for the first time. Her ebony hair looked blue, and the soft breeze rustled her long hair that hung in her face. He fought the urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ears.

Rowan tipped her head to the side, wondering what Abel was doing here. His brown eyes hit the sunlight and she saw that yellow hue again behind his brown irises, like there was a second-self inside of him. She had not realized it the day before, probably too caught up in her anxiety about her bike, but Rowan saw now the otherness to Abel. She was captivated by his person. He wore worn jeans with black boots, a blue t-shirt, and a black bomber jacket that was broken in. His sable hair was kissed by the sun, bringing out thin streaks of cinnamon. His brown eyes held a slightly disenchanted, cynical gleam about the world.

"You don't go here…do you?" Rowan spoke up, having to break the intense silence between them.

He hmmphed roughly and gazed around the premises somewhat derisively. "No, I don't."

She nodded. "Figured so." Rowan shifted her weight onto her left leg.

She was tiny, Abel thought. She couldn't have been more than five-one or –two but her Doc Marten boots bumped her up at least an inch and a half. Her uniform was about a size too big for her, but there was a mature womanliness about her that was hard for Abel to miss. Her irises couldn't seem to make up their mind what color they wanted to be as the hues continued to mockingly shift, standing out all the more because they were surrounded by long, thick lashes of onyx.

"You left this at the garage," Abel said, getting to the point, needing to leave before he fell deeper.

Rowan looked at the album for a second before taking it. "Thank you," she smiled. "I couldn't find it last night and I figured I must have left it there, but it was too late to go back."

Abel shrugged. "Yeah, well…I thought you might want it back."

Rowan smiled softly.

_She does not know the affect she has on people,_ Abel thought. Because her smile went straight to his heart. And there was a voice in his head saying "retreat" but his feet seemed to be glued to the earth.

----

"Hubba, hubba," Pinkie said, eyeing the male who was walking towards Rowan.

All eyes at the table followed Pinkie's.

"Who is _that_?" Dizzy asked, a glitter of interest in her eyes.

"That's the dude who fixes my bike," Hunter said.

Pogue nodded. "Yeah."

"If that's the case, then I need to get myself some sort of vehicle," Pinkie said.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Reid voiced acerbically. "Is he some kind of stalker or something?" Reid saw the familiar smile spread on Rowan's face and jealous heat built within his chest.

"He's giving her something," Dizzy commented. They were kind of far away, and they sure as heck couldn't hear them, but the body language spoke volumes. "Oh, look! I think he's returning her photo album. Rowan said she had probably left it at the garage."

"He came all the way here to give her back her photo album?" Reid's voice dripped with acidic suspicion.

"Sounds sweet," Kate said with a grin.

Pogue frowned at that, he didn't like the fascinated attention Kate was paying the mechanic. Likewise, Caleb wasn't so sure what the guy had in store for his sister. True, it was a nice gesture to return her photo album, but he couldn't have waited until the next time he saw her? Tyler was equally perturbed, mostly because Dizzy was admiring the guy, and he had had a crush on her since freshman year. But she had a boyfriend back in Napa, California whom she was very dedicated to. Tyler had resigned himself to pining away from close by.

----

"Your friends are pretty interested," Abel said, gesturing with his head.

Rowan turned to see them all goggling at the two of them, and she chuckled. "Yeah." She pointed them all out. "The girl on the far left is Maria, but we call her Dizzy. Then there's Pinkie, Kate, Pogue, Hunter, Caleb, Tyler and Reid." She waved and Dizzy lit up and waved back.

"The last five are your brothers?"

Rowan smirked at him. "You looked at the pictures?"

He didn't answer, and his silence was unrepentant. The bell rang, cutting their meeting short, both hid their disappointment. Rowan put the animal feed back in her bag along with the photo album.

"So…" she began.

"Yeah, you have to go," Abel interjected.

"Thank you again," she said, slowly walking away but not really wanting to.

"Maybe we could go for coffee sometime," Abel blurted.

Her face betrayed her surprise.

"I mean…if…"

"That'd be nice," Rowan said.

"Okay, I'll just…" _Damn, she has you tongue-tied like a prepubescent cub! _He cleared his throat, "See you later then."

"Okay."

Abel turned and walked away inwardly cursing himself. He shouldn't have done that. He really should not have done that. He had no business getting even remotely involved with anyone here. He had a clear purpose for being here: Find his brother and get the hell out of Ipswich. But as he got back into his truck he realized he wasn't as tense as usual, and that he was actually looking forward to something. Abel couldn't remember the last time he had been. Couldn't recall the last time he had smiled or laughed so much in one short interval. He had thought those things long lost…or just dead.

Then you meet someone and come to find that there's still something kindling inside of you that isn't hatred or anger.

"Damn," he cursed. "Just…" Rowan's face flickered in his mind, and his cursing faded away.

* * *

**_I have the picture of Dizzy up, fyi. :)_**

**_How's this Abel and Rowan connection going so far? Okay? Not so okay?  
_**


	4. Down the Rabbit Hole

**IV. Down the Rabbit Hole**

_Either the well was very deep,  
__or she fell very slowly,__  
for she had plenty of time__  
as she went down to look about her__  
and to wonder what was going to happen next.  
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

"And I want details when you get back," Rowan said to Pogue. "You won't leave anything out."

Pogue sighed. Tonight was his first date with Kate and he was nervous enough. First he would take her out to dinner at a new Italian restaurant in the city, then a movie, or they could skip the movie and go to the Dells where he could park the car and just look at the sites. The sites, yeah, it was the perfect spot to make out.

Everyone was gathered in Pogue and Hunter's apartment. With the two of them turning sixteen their parents had consented to letting them out of the dorms and into their own place, so the two of them had opted to be roomies, now occupying a two bedroom, one and a half bath apartment with an average-sized living room and a kitchen. Their living room was decked out with mismatched furniture, a coffee table, a plasma screen TV, various video game consuls, stereo with surround sound and a DVD player. Rowan had added her own touches with pictures and a fake plant, because she knew they would never be able to keep a real one alive. She had also made sure to get them cleaning supplies for their bathrooms and kitchen.

"So you just want to hear about him making out?" Reid asked with a smirk.

Rowan glared at him. "They're going to have a romantic night, Reid. And knowing what a gentleman Pogue is," – she smiled at him – "he wouldn't try to make out with Kate on the first date."

They all snickered, and Rowan rolled her eyes.

"I see no one believes in romance anymore," she lamented.

Ernie barked as if to say that he did. But his bark set off a series of squeaks from Bruce Lee and Bubbe pounced on the ferret to quiet him in a maternal manner. The animals were occupying the large dog bed in the corner of the living room.

"Aren't you seeing Abel tonight?" Hunter asked smoothly.

"You're going out on a date?" Caleb questioned.

"It's not a date. It's coffee after work," she corrected. "Work that I have to be at in twenty minutes." She stood up and made ready to go.

"Hold up a second," Reid said sternly. "You don't even know this guy and you're going out with him?"

"We're not going out," Rowan said again, her cheeks burning.

"When did he move here anyway?" Tyler asked.

Rowan gave a high gasp of indignation at Tyler joining in the interrogation, but when it came to his sister even the baby boy of the group was unrepentant in his concern.

"I'm leaving now," Rowan said. She grabbed her jacket while ignoring their protestations. "Don't forget to feed the kids," she added, and closed the door behind her.

Rowan left the apartment building and walked to her scooter that was parked out front. She was just about to put her helmet on when Reid called out to her.

"Rowan! Wait a sec!"

She shook her hair out of her eyes and pulled it back into a ponytail. "What's wrong?" She got off her scooter.

"Nothing, just… Are you sure you should be going out with this Abel guy?"

Rowan sighed and laughed half-heartedly. "Reid, it's just coffee at Beans. The same small coffee place that we go to practically every morning before school. It's not like he's taking me on his Learjet for dinner in Paris."

"I'm serious."

"So am I." Rowan's brown-hued eyes looked into his cerulean blue ones point-blank. "It's not a big deal, Reid."

He sighed and pinched the top of his nose between his eyes.

"Do you really think there's something wrong with him?" Rowan asked him.

Reid hesitated to answer. He didn't even know the guy, he was just…jealous. He had never seen Rowan with any other guy but Hunter, and to think of her getting involved with someone else. He didn't even want to think of that.

"That's what I thought, silly," she smiled, rose on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek.

Rowan was just about to get back on her scooter when Reid stopped her by holding onto her elbow. "Wait," he said. And before she could speak he leaned down and kissed her on her mouth, firm, but tender, short and sweet.

"What was that for?" she asked somewhat breathlessly.

Reid half-grinned and shrugged. "Couldn't help myself." And he watched her ride away, hands in his pockets, trying to resist the urge to go to the car garage and order Abel to stay away from her.

----

Abel had to take a hot shower after work to scrub all the grease and sweat off him before going across the street to the small bakery where Rowan worked. It wasn't a date, but it was something close to it, and it was all he could think about yesterday and all day today. Billy had noticed something off about him, no doubt having noticed Abel constantly look out the garage door in the direction of the bakery.

It didn't take long for him to get ready, donning jeans, black t-shirt, boots and his jacket, and by six o'clock he was locking his front door and crossing the street. The bell on the door of the Drury Lane Bakery tinkled as it opened. His senses were instantly besieged by the smells of fresh bread, donuts, cookies, and other sugary confections. There were a few people at the counter making their final selections and Rowan was ringing them up.

His heart did that stupid thudding thing when she took notice of him and smiled. She gestured that she would be with him in a minute and he took a seat in the small lounge area while watching Rowan out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't remember the last time he had done something so casual, even if it was just going out for coffee. Abel had lived a somewhat secular life, growing up with the same people from birth until he'd left home almost a year ago; virtually on his own since then.

If someone had told him two years ago that his family was corrupted and he'd been living a lie Abel wouldn't have believed it. Not that his life had been perfect, probably far from it, he just hadn't taken notice. It didn't all come crashing down on him in one fell swoop until his mother had died. That was when he'd been presented with two choices, but his grief at her death had spurred him to make the wrong one, which he was still trying to rectify.

Rowan rang up the last customer, having kept her eye on Abel since he'd walked in the door. He certainly had a presence about him and Mrs. Faulkner, a regular at the bakery had commented on how "cute" he was, although "quite the recluse." Ipswich was a small town, and a stranger who came to stay and ultimately kept to himself was bound to be talked about. Especially if the stranger was a young, attractive man like Abel.

She went into the back where Lacey was doing inventory. "Hey, sweetie, is that old busy-body gone?" she asked with a mischievous grin, referring to Mrs. Faulkner.

Rowan smiled. "Yeah." She hung up her apron.

She cleared her throat demurely. "Is that young man waiting for you?" Lacey's eyebrows were arched and her ruby lips were pinched into an amused grin.

Rowan blushed. "Just going out for coffee."

"Hmm…"

"You sound like my brothers."

Lacey laughed. "Well, he is rather mysterious. Popping up one day a little over three months ago working and living at Billy's garage and keeping to himself. I don't think he even goes to school."

"He lives there?"

Lacey nodded. "Yup, in the small apartment upstairs."

"Convenient," Rowan said. "Take care, Lace."

"You too, sweetie. Have fun and be careful."

"I will," Rowan assured her.

Abel was sitting in the same place when Rowan approached him. "Ready?"

He got up, and he practically towered over her, but Rowan was used to the guys in her life doing so. Abel opened the door for her and they walked out into the blistery evening. The sun was going down, not that they could see it behind the thick gray clouds. Beans was just down the street so they walked. Abel peeked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

She was wearing blue jeans that hugged her waist and thighs, Chucks, and a fitted long-sleeved black shirt that had a decal of a multi-colored pit bull with the words PRIZE above the head and NOT FIGHTER below it. Abel couldn't help but notice the utter femininity of her figure, the graceful way she walked. He wondered why she hid herself behind her too-big school uniform. She was an amalgamation of contradictions and mystery and Abel found himself wanting to know all about her.

They ordered their coffees when they arrived at Beans and sat down by the window that looked out into the small town of Ipswich.

"You've lived here all your life?" Abel asked.

Rowan nodded as she stirred sugar in her cup before putting the top back on and sticking a straw in the hole. "I drink my coffee with a straw. Sue me."

Abel chuckled.

Turning the tables on him Rowan said: "Where were you born? I know you're not from around here."

The smile left his face and he took his sweet time answering by sipping his drink. This was something he knew would happen but hadn't bothered to think about when he'd asked her out. No doubt they would get to talking about stuff like this. He didn't want to lie to her.

"Alaska," he finally said.

Her eyes locked on him with interest. "That's cool. Have you ever been to the Iditarod sled dog races?"

The enthusiasm in which she said it humored him. "Yeah."

"Wow. I've always wanted to go."

"Why haven't you then?"

Rowan shrugged. "Hopefully one day."

"You're an animal lover," he said.

"What gave me away?" Rowan smiled.

They were becoming more at ease with one another, and Abel steered her away from his background by telling her more about the sled races.

"Does your family go with you?" she asked, catching onto him.

"Yeah," he said, adding nothing further.

Rowan let it go. If anyone knew better about family secrets or needing to keep them secret it was her. There was only so much she could say about her family background, but she never let the limitations get to her. But there was something more to it with Abel, he was hiding something bad, and she had a feeling he was running away from it.

Abel chanced a look at her and the intensity of her gaze pierced his soul and for one panicked second he thought she had found him out. If she knew what he had done, she would probably have nothing more to do with him.

"Tell me this, at least," she said with a conciliatory grin. "What's your last name?"

"Marrok."

"That sounds familiar," she said, absently tugging on her ear.

"It does?"

She was staring out the window trying to remember where she had heard that name. "Oh!" The light bulb went on. "That was a knight in the Arthurian legends, he was also a werewolf." She smiled. "There we go."

Abel had to laugh. "You have a good memory."

"I'm a fountain of useless information," she said.

"I wouldn't say that's useless. I learned something new."

Their eyes locked, and they didn't speak. It was one of those pivotal moments when you knew you were at the point of no return. And it felt good because it was new, and it was scary because you had no idea where it would lead.

----

The second Hunter turned the shower off he felt something was off. The animals had gone quiet. His fighter's instincts came out and he doused the lights in the bathroom, wrapped a towel around his waist and silently opened the bathroom door. Pogue was still out on his date, and the other guys had left a couple of hours ago. It was raining heavily now.

He crept down the hallway, chilled by the cool air against his damp skin. He saw the lamp was on in the living room, and he had his telekinetic energy ready at his hand to disarm an intruder.

"It's just me," a voice called out.

A voice that Hunter was familiar with. "Gabe?"

"Yeah." Gabriel Grayraven, son of Roz Grayraven, grandson to Eve Delacroix was a voodoo sorcerer as was his twin brother, Michael.

Hunter walked into the living room. "When did you get here?"

"Fifteen minutes ago." He smiled at Hunter, glad to see him.

There was no denying an attraction between the two of them. They had kissed last New Years and had gotten closer over the summer while Rowan was still in the coma and then rehabilitating. But they hadn't gone any further than that, knowing it wasn't the right time with Rowan injured. Gabriel had been a great comfort to Hunter during that time.

Hunter saw Bubbe, Ernie, and Bruce Lee all curled up on Pogue's recliner.

"Sleeping like babes," Gabe quipped.

Both were silent as they looked at one another. Gabriel's eyes roamed down Hunter's bare chest which was toned and defined. The only jewelry he wore was a small talisman no bigger than the nail on his pinkie finger that Rowan had made for him. It nullified all magical power that was used against him. Hunter became aware that he was standing in front of Gabriel in nothing but a towel.

He cleared his throat. "I uh…I'm going to put some clothes on." Three minutes later he was back in boxers and a t-shirt. "You want anything? Food? Drink?"

Gabriel shook his head. "_Non, merci_."

Hunter sat down on one of the recliners, somehow knowing that this wasn't a social visit. "What's wrong?"

The Cajun smirked. "Nothing's wrong. But I do have words for you. A message, more like."

"A message."

Thunder crashed but the animals didn't stir.

"What did you do to them?" Hunter asked.

"They were scared so I calmed them," Gabriel said. At Hunter's unsure look, he reassured him, "Really, they're fine."

Hunter leaned back in the recliner, waiting for what Gabriel had to say. "Is it Rowan?"

"It involves her… Last Christmas a demon stilled the area around her house and called her out."

His green eyes became slits. "Called her out?"

"He was a human. He's part of a sect that is insistent on killing the Keeper of the Covenant." He could tell by Hunter's expression that he didn't know what that was. So Gabriel gave him an abridged version and a smattering of little information he knew about the Keepers and the Covenant.

"And Rowan is the Keeper?"

"She hasn't come into power yet," Gabe said.

Hunter was up and pacing. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"She hasn't told anyone."

"Then why are you telling me?" Hunter demanded.

"Because you're her Shepherd."

Hunter stopped short and stared down at him. "Shepherds are largely retired."

He shrugged. "Grandmère says."

"So, she saw this in a vision?"

"She told me what she could."

Hunter sat down again and ran his hand down his face. "And how am I fitting into this?"

"A long time ago when Rowan met you, grandmère said that your path was meant to intertwine with Rowan's and the Covenant. Rowan needs you. There will be more of this sect out to get her, and you're her Shepherd. And it's against her nature to kill. It would darken her spirits if she did. Someone must be there to wield the final blow."

"Why is this happening to her?" he asked Gabriel. "Hasn't she been through enough?"

This side of Hunter was a large part of what attracted Gabriel to him. His devotion and love for Rowan, those feelings that he was simply capable of. He thought first of the burden to Rowan and not to himself.

"She has already accepted her part in this," Gabe told him.

"Why do they want to kill her?"

"Darklighters who want to stop a future Whitelighter. They send their familiars to kill her, and if they don't, the Darklighters hope she will break under the strain of trying to survive."

"What do Darklighters have to do with this?"

"Rowan is part of the prophecy. Someone with a pure heart will bring together Keepers and the Covenant. When she Invokes the Spirit, the Spirit may well imbue her with this…gift."

"You don't make it sound like a gift."

"If she becomes a Whitelighter after Invoking the Spirit, she will be partially responsible for witches who come to her territory. They will seek her out for help, probably."

"So let me get this straight," Hunter said. "Not only does Rowan have to be responsible for the integrity of the Covenant, which her ancestors screwed up, she'll have to be responsible for other witches who want her help, while fending off these Darklighters."

"_Oui._ There is much more to it, but that is the gist."

"What else is there?"

Gabriel's brown eyes looked at Hunter with rueful regret. "Ah, if only I knew. Grand-mere can only reveal so much. One of the drawbacks of being a Seer."

The two fell silent and listened to the rain fall. Hunter knew that even if he wasn't a Shepherd or being "called" to stand by Rowan he would have done so anyway. She was his best friend, and if friends could be soul mates then Rowan was his, and he would go through hell and back for her or with her. He would kill for her, too, and oddly the idea of it did not jar him.

"You don't have to ask me what I'll do," Hunter finally said.

"I know."

"How many are there?"

"Six, as far as I know. There were seven, but he became extinct last Christmas."

Hunter nodded. He placed his head in his hands and shut his eyes. Rowan had been shouldering this by herself for the better part of a year and he hadn't realized. Just because she accepted her role in this, didn't mean she liked it, or wanted it. He would ask her about it later, he would keep her safe. A warm hand on his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts. Gabriel's brown eyes looked at his jade green ones with tenderness. Their silent exchange mirrored one another's desire and they knew they were at that point when you jumped or…

Hunter took Gabriel's hand and led him to his bedroom.

* * *

**Thanks for the kudos so far, much appreciated. :)**


	5. Echoes

**V. Echoes**

_And no one called us to the land  
And no one knows the wheres or whys  
But something stirs and something tries__  
And starts to climb towards the light  
-Pink Floyd_

The next morning Hunter woke up alone. It was dawn when Gabriel had lightly woke Hunter to tell him he had to leave. But he ended up staying another hour in Hunter's bed before, and not without an internal struggle, kissing Hunter goodbye. It was a little before noon when Hunter got up to get himself some breakfast. He already smelled sausage, pancakes and eggs cooking. He passed Ernie, Bubbe and Bruce Lee wrestling in the living room as he made his way to the kitchen where Rowan was at the stove.

"Hello, sleepy head," she said.

Pogue was at the small kitchen table shoveling down food with a sly smile on his face. "So, uh…Hunter," – he put down his fork, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his bare chest – "did you have a guest over last night?"

Hunter's face crimsoned, but his silence was indicative of the affirmative. "You got home pretty late last night," he tossed back.

Pogue laughed. "Yeah, but, I didn't come home and have a slumber party. The Three Hairy Amigos out there," – he gestured towards the living room – "were curiously standing outside your bedroom door when I got back."

Rowan handed Hunter a plate with a stack of pancakes with syrup and butter, sausages, and scrambled eggs and toast. He thanked her and sat down across from Pogue, studiously keeping silent.

"Well, congratulations, bro, I'm happy for you," Pogue said with a clap on Hunter's back.

"Why're you happy for him?" Reid asked, overhearing the tail end of their conversation. Caleb and Tyler trailed in behind him. "Pancakes!"

"Hunter…" Pogue began.

"Shut up," Hunter growled, but last night's euphoria had yet to wear off and he couldn't bring himself to be truly angry.

"…had a night visitor," Pogue finished.

Rowan shook her head and sighed while she prepared plates for the three newcomers. They crowded around the table and waited for Pogue's revelation.

"Gabriel was here, okay?" Hunter blurted. "Now we can talk about something else."

But his words were drowned out by a chorus of laughs and bombastic male congratulations when a friend got some, even if it was with another dude.

"How was your…outing?" Reid asked Rowan.

The table quieted a little.

"It was fine," she replied, taking the vacant seat at the table.

"Just fine?" Caleb said. "What time did you get back?"

"Before Pogue," Rowan quipped. "I was asleep on the couch and he didn't wake me up to tell me about his date." She shot him a censuring glance.

"You looked so peaceful, lil bit, I couldn't wake you," Pogue said.

"Then tell me now."

Pogue sighed and rolled his eyes up at the ceiling, but a smile was playing on his lips. The guys snickered, but held their tongues. Pogue said they went out to dinner, then a movie.

"How was the movie?" Rowan asked.

Pogue opened his mouth to answer, then shut it because he had no answer. "Fine."

Rowan drummed her nails on the table. "You didn't watch the movie, did you?"

"Well…"

"Of course he didn't," Reid interjected. "He was too busy making an X-rated video of his own."

"Shut up, Reid," Pogue snapped, but the blond just laughed and went back to his food.

"What else did you guys do?" Tyler asked Rowan, veering the topic back to her.

"Coffee and we talked," she answered shortly.

"At Beans?" Tyler prodded.

"No, Tyler. We went back to his apartment."

"You what?" Caleb got his hackles up. "Alone?"

"He lives above the garage," Rowan said. "Not a big deal. I'm sure my evening with Abel was much more chaste than Hunter's and Pogue's."

"We're not talking about them," Caleb went on. "You hardly know him and you went to his place by yourself. What if something had happened?"

"Nothing did, big brother," Rowan snipped. "All we did was talk."

"Talk," Reid repeated as if it were a dirty word.

"Yeah. Two people of the opposite sex _can_ have a conversation without clothes coming off," Rowan shot back. She was rather getting sick of the interrogation.

Reid snorted.

"You don't think so?" Rowan asked. When he didn't answer right away Rowan tossed her fork down and said, "You're right Reid. We didn't talk. We went back to his apartment and had wild jack rabbit sex."

"What!?" Caleb nearly yelled.

"And it was great!" she shoved the knife a little deeper.

"Rowan…" her brother warned.

Tyler was flushed, his head in his hands hearing his little sister talk like this.

"You better be joking," Reid said with a dead-serious expression.

"Of course I am," Rowan said, the mocking flare instantly gone as quick as it had come. "Like you guys said – I hardly know him. Is that something you think I would do?" And her eyes met every one of theirs.

"No," Tyler answered. "We just…well-"

"We don't know what was going on in his mind," Caleb said.

Rowan nodded. "Okay, I can appreciate that. But I'm a pretty good judge of character, you guys know that. And I don't get the feeling that he has nefarious designs to ravage me senseless."

"Christ…" Caleb muttered under his breath.

"Well if he tries anything…" Pogue let on.

"Yeah, yeah. Eat. Your food is getting cold."

----

It was later that afternoon when Hunter finally got to sit down with Rowan to talk about what Gabriel had told him. They were in her apothecary at the Danvers mansion chopping up herbs.

"Gabriel came to see me for a reason," he ventured.

She continued to slice, but nodded to show she was listening.

"He told me about the Keeper thing."

Rowan's hands stilled but Hunter noticed a faint tremor. His best friend looked tired now, the dark circles beneath her almond shaped eyes more pronounced. It was during the times when she relaxed that she look the most bereaved, when the echoes of her nightmares were most prominent.

"Everything?" she said. "Last Christmas, the Whitelighter thing?"

Hunter nodded.

"Why?"

"He said you would need my help. I'm your Shepherd."

"You can't be involved. It's dangerous."

"It's dangerous to you, too. And you've been dealing with this by yourself for over year." He put his knife down and turned to her. "Why didn't you tell me, Row?"

She shrugged. "I didn't see the point. The prophecy isn't set in stone or anything. Someone better might come along. Someone 'pure of heart'."

"Sounds like you," he said.

Rowan scoffed. "Yeah. Right."

"You don't have to do this, you know," he told her.

"Who else would protect them, Hunter?" Rowan implored him with heavy eyes, asking for any solution he could come up with. When he didn't, she said: "Members of the Covenant can't kill their Keepers or they're twice-damned. The first Keeper, Lucius, put the curse on them to age if they used their Powers. It wasn't always like that. But when the Covenant couldn't see what it was doing to them, Lucius was going to bind their power. The Putnam son convinced the others that Lucius wanted to rule them, and because they coveted their power more than life, they burned their Keeper at the stake. Since they were all already addicted they were dead within two years."

Rowan continued with the abridged version about how more Keepers came, some more helpful than others, but either the Keepers persecuted the members of the Covenant, or members of the Covenant found ways to oust the Keepers, thus continuing to expand the breach between the two communities.

"And I'm supposed to bridge the gap," she finished with a shaky breath. "How can I fix a centuries-old feud, Hunter? How can I keep them from killing them if they kill me first?"

He wished he could make the tears brimming in her eyes go away, but he knew he couldn't, and he wished he had answers for her, but he didn't. All he could find within himself was to pull her close and hold her.

----

It wasn't the ideal night to go out searching, but Abel had to make do. He had been in Ipswich for damn near four months and had only found faint wisps of his brother, and a possible sighting during the day, but his brother had been gone before he could take a step. It was almost sundown, and it was the one night that was impossible for Hunter to either see or speak to Rowan. The last three weeks had been great. Day by day he was more attracted to her, although it got harder to keep the truth about himself and his reasons for being here a secret. They hadn't so much as kissed (not that he didn't want to), they just spent their time talking and sometimes just sitting together not saying anything.

The three days a week Rowan worked at Drury Lane Bakery he would walk over at six o'clock, pick her up, then they would walk to Beans, and if the weather permitted they might walk around town. Abel had learned more about Ipswich and its surroundings in the month he'd known Rowan than all the time he had been here. It was a small town with a breadth of a history.

Now, he was driving down the roads that had been laid down over a hundred years ago, back to the spot he had last sensed his older brother of three years. It was in the thick of woods, places where Asher had always liked to hunt, where there were a lot of places to hide and it made catching the prey a challenge for him. Thinking of his childhood with his brother brought back fond memories mixed with old pain to Abel's heart. When he found his brother could he get him to come back home? Did he even want him to come back home? Asher had caused a lot of pain, and Abel doubted that their community would ever forgive him.

But Abel was here for his father, who was dying, and did not have long to live. A year. So he had six months to find his brother and get back home. His father, Levi Marrok, wanted to make some sort of peace with Asher, so it was Abel's job to find his wayward brother.

Abel felt his muscles start to tense and knew he needed to get to ground soon. He sped up and fled down the dark roads, further into the woods until there were no more roads. Abel took his truck off-road, stopping and cutting the engine. Feeling the tightness spread he kicked off his shoes and his clothes, then gave in to the night. Tendons, muscles and sinew stretched and contorted, biological changes careened through his body, all within minutes. Hair sprouted, a tail emerged, and he fell on all fours, the pads of his paws sinking into the damp earth.

Abel sniffed the cool air, hating that it was wet because it doused odors, making it harder to track. But this was his brother's ground. Like the trickster he was, he left clues for Abel, taunting him. Come and get me. Asher would leave claw marks on trees, pieces of carcass trailing like breadcrumbs to nowhere. And just for spite, Abel was sure, pissing and crapping on trees.

Thank you, dear brother, Abel thought.

And it was only on the full moon when Asher ever let Abel see him. Asher had had a year head start on him, but must have known the moment Abel had appeared in the same town as him. Because once he had settled in he was sent one postcard a week with Asher's signature, and nothing else.

Abel prowled further into the woods, not interested in hunting animals. He wondered how Rowan would feel if she knew he hunted animals. She likely wouldn't approve as she did not approve of hunting. Abel had never known anyone so passionate about a cause. She loved animals, volunteered at the humane society two to three times a week. But all the time he spent with her he couldn't help but notice the shadow of pain she carried, the dark circles under her eyes. The car accident must have done a number on her. Sometimes he caught her limping, and if they were walking on the sidewalk and cars whizzed by he saw some of the color leave her face and terror stiffen her body. Abel would hear the irregular beat of her heart, the beat of panic, fear. For all that, he didn't know how she could smile as she did and still see bright spots in the world.

It was all Abel could do to hang on to any sense of positivism himself.

A brief, sharp howl snatched Abel out of his thoughts. His head whipped to the left and he caught the flash of yellow beads in the dark.

_Abel…_

Abel snapped his head to the right where the taunt was coming from.

_Little brother…_

_Stop playing around, Asher!_

_But it's fun, Abe._

_I'm sick of this. Just listen to me for a second._ He tried to keep up with the faint, swift movement of his brother's form.

_Okay._

Abel pivoted around, facing his brother for the first time in over a year. Asher was three feet in front of him, his quadruped form was bigger than his, more imposing. Asher didn't give an inch of mercy, just stared his younger brother down like a stranger.

_What do you have to tell me, little brother?_ His head tipped to the side inquisitively. _Hmm?_

_Come home._

_Home? I don't have one. I was exiled, remember?_

_No, you ran away!_

Pause._ Why do you think I did that, Abel?_

_Because you…_

_I what?_ Asher took a step forward. _What did I do? What did they say I did?_

_It was an accident_, was all Abel could tell him, defeated. _Dad knows that, he wants you to come home._

_I don't have a father,_ he replied coolly.

_He's the only dad you know!_

_Yeah, he made sure of that._ Asher's hackles went up and his fangs gleamed. _You want to know something about dear old dad?_ He took a step forward, causing his little brother to retreat until his rear hit a tree and he was nose to nose with his brother. _Levi Marrok is a murderer. _

The blood ran cold through Abel's veins, penetrating his thick coat of black hair. _That's a lie._

Asher heard the hesitation in Abel. _Not so sure are you?_ _You know there was something wrong with the night mom died._ For the first time some emotion glittered in Asher's eyes – pain, regret. _Maybe you should go home and ask dad what really happened to mom that night. And while you're at it. Ask him what happened to my birth father, too._

Asher snapped his teeth at Abel to throw him off, and then he was gone. Abel stood there, not moving even as it began to rain, soaking his pelt to the bone. He hated those doubts that had plagued him ever since his mom died. It hadn't seemed right, but he had been so consumed by grief that nothing made sense. A mournful howl emitted from deep inside of him, echoing into the deep.

* * *

**Thanks people for reading and reviewing. Much appreciate. :)**


	6. Falling Slowly

**VI. Falling Slowly**

_Falling slowly, eyes that know me  
And I can't go back  
Moods that take me and erase me  
And I'm painted black  
You have suffered enough  
And warred with yourself  
__It's time that you won  
-Glen Hansard_

It was an official date night and Rowan's stomach was in knots. She hadn't gone out on an actual date since Hunter and even then their first date had been over two years ago when they were twelve and thirteen respectively.

Dizzy, Pinkie and Rowan were in Rowan's room helping her get ready. Rowan had adamantly vetoed any eyeliner and mascara to Dizzy's dismay. But she had agreed to a very light appliance of blush and eye shadow. Choosing what to where had been an oddly difficult task for Rowan as she was never overly picky or one of those girls who took over an hour to get ready.

"Sweetie, it's okay," Dizzy was saying to her. "Breathe."

"I am breathing," Rowan said.

"You know what I mean!"

"You're just making me more nervous," Rowan told her. "It's bad enough I have a mad pack of brothers downstairs waiting to interrogate Abel."

Pinkie laughed. "You are so lucky to have grown up among such pretty faces. Not that they're my type or anything." He continued to flip through a current fashion magazine. Dizzy and Pinkie were going to stay over at Rowan's tonight so they could rip all the details out of her about her date with Abel.

Rowan went into the bathroom to change. Her two fashion guru friends helped her decide on a purple paisley chiffon dress, black tights and black Ludlow boots with a sturdy heel. Dizzy had broken down the stats of the dress: woven with button front closure and attached tie at the waist, smocking at drop waist for better fit, thirty-seven inches long. When Rowan came out of the bathroom Dizzy and Pinkie hooted and whistled and if she had had something handy to throw at them, she would have.

Rowan slipped on her boots, put a modest beaded bracelet on her wrist, a coin necklace around her neck, and declared herself ready.

"You can't go downstairs yet!" Dizzy exclaimed. "You have to make him wait at least five minutes."

She stared at her friend as if she'd gone mad. "You want me to be late on purpose, is what you're saying."

"Duh, silly!"

Rowan shook her head and sighed. "I don't do that. I'm punctual. How can I be late when he's picking _me_ up?"

Pouting, Dizzy followed Rowan out of her bedroom and downstairs. Hearing their footsteps the guys came out of the living room to see how she was dressed. Caleb looked her up and down, then smiled. Big brother approved. His sis wasn't wearing anything too revealing, so he could live with it.

"Well, tell her how fantastic she looks, you guys!" Dizzy ordered.

Rowan blushed. "Please, don't."

"I could cry," Pinkie said, wiping invisible tears from his face.

"You look great, Rowan," Hunter said, and Tyler, Pogue, and Caleb sincerely echoed his sentiments.

Reid had his arms crossed over his chest while leaning stiffly against the wall. He had been hoping this thing between Rowan and Abel would fizzle out, but no suck luck. They had only begun spending more time together for the past month or so and it drove him crazy wondering just how close they were getting.

"You're bringing him to Nicky's afterwards, right?" Reid asked in such a blasé manner that indicated there wasn't anything remotely blasé about it. "So we can hang out."

Rowan rarely went to Nicky's because it was usually so crowded and loud, and it was even more nerve wracking with her PTSD. Her stomach clenched just thinking about the fact that she would have to sit in Abel's truck tonight. It was only a week and a half ago that Rowan had had an appointment at the doctors that she couldn't take her scooter to, so Caleb had driven her. Once they had gotten on the road Rowan's already shaky breathing had turned into hyperventilation and then a panic attack. Caleb had pulled over to the side of the road and it had taken nearly fifteen minutes to get her back into the car. When the doctor saw her pasty complexion and her dilated pupils, pulse through the roof, he had suggested a light sedative before she left, which Rowan declined. The ride back home had been similarly rocky; when they got home Rowan had gone straight to the bathroom and thrown up, then slept the rest of the day from mental and emotional burn out.

Rowan slipped her knee-length black coat on and grabbed her purse. "If it's not too late, maybe," she told Reid.

"If he's going to be around we should get to know him," Caleb said.

"I'll ask him," was her reply.

Two minutes later they heard Abel's truck pull up in front of the house. Rowan answered the door, her smile instantly spreading on her face. Abel was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt, jeans, boots, and his bomber jacket.

"Wow, you look great," Abel said.

"Bring him in!" Dizzy squealed.

"Sorry, they all want to say hi," Rowan said.

Abel shrugged nonchalantly and walked with Rowan out of the foyer. A lesser guy would have been intimidated by the five tall, fairly muscular guys who were staring him down, but Abel met their eyes amiably but firmly.

"Abel, this is Caleb, Pogue, Tyler, Hunter, Dizzy, Pinkie, and Reid."

"Nice to finally meet you all," Abel said.

"Definitely nice to meet you," Pinkie said, smiling coyly, not letting any awkward silences ensue.

"Definitely," Dizzy echoed. "We've only been waiting for, like, ever!"

It was then that Ernie, Bubbe and Bruce Lee came rushing in from the kitchen.

"Ah, in the flesh," Abel said, kneeling down and holding his hand out for them to sniff.

Ernie approached cautiously, his wet nose making contact with Abel's skin. The German shepherd stiffened, then continued to sniff Abel more intently before instantly rolling on his back in a submissive position. Rowan was surprised at Ernie's behavior, but at least it was obvious that he liked Abel. Seeing that Ernie approved, Bruce Lee made a mad dash towards Abel and did his ferret war dance.

"Sorry, he's excitable," Rowan apologized.

"It's cool," Abel said, enjoying the animals. He pet Bruce Lee - who then scampered off to Hunter to perch on his shoulder - then gave Ernie a final pat on his sternum. "Where's Bubbe?"

"Here," Reid said, speaking for the first time. Bubbe was behind Reid's leg, simply observing.

"Come here, Bubbe," Rowan crooned, and slowly the cat came out from her hiding place. Rowan picked her up and the cat looked at Abel warily.

"She's very particular of the company she keeps," Reid said.

"Shush," Dizzy hissed at Reid, swatting him on the arm.

It was a test for any guy who liked Rowan to see if her animals liked him. If they didn't was a cue that the relationship was off to a bad start. Reid was obviously hoping Bubbe would give Abel the proverbial thumbs-down.

"She'll warm up to you," Rowan said, her eyes darting at Reid to warn him not to say another word. The cat did let Abel touch her on her cheeks before Rowan put her back down. Bubbe sauntered over to Reid who picked her up with a smug twist on his lips and triumphant gleam in his eyes.

"All right, now you've met everyone," Rowan declared.

"We'll see you at Nicky's afterward?" Pogue asked.

Rowan didn't give him a straight answer. She shuffled Abel out of the room. Abel opened the front door and let Rowan go before him.

"Hey," Caleb caught up with him before he could step out.

It was boyfriend to brother. They were relatively the same height with the same build, neither one was cowed by the other. But Caleb hadn't pulled Abel aside for male posturing.

"Drive safe," Caleb said, completely serious. It wasn't an idle suggestion, it came out like a warning.

Abel nodded, taking no offense. "I know."

Caleb's eyes flicked out of the door to his sister, concerned. "Okay."

Rowan was waiting at the bottom of the stone steps. "Bye, Cay."

"Have f-" He was about to say 'have fun' but didn't want to contemplate the different meanings of that, so he said: "See you later."

Abel opened the door of his truck and helped her in. She flinched when the door shut, then again when the driver's side door shut. She felt her heart beat faster, the cab closing in.

"You okay?" Abel asked before he started the car.

Rowan nodded.

"Your eyes are closed," he said gently.

She smiled waveringly, opening them slowly. Abel started the car and slowly hit the accelerator, not wanting to start too fast. The driveway was pretty long, but they were on the long barren road leading into town in no time. Abel had never witnessed one of Rowan's panic attacks, even though she had mentioned them, so he was carefully watching out for one so he could stop the car at a second's notice. He had realized his protective instincts growing with Rowan, wanting to soothe her if or when he could.

He noticed she was clutching a stress ball in her hand, and her jaw tightened when a car would pass them.

"So, you never told me how Bruce Lee got his name," he spoke.

The comment caught her off guard. "Uh…uh, Hunter picked the name actually."

"The black belt ex-boyfriend?"

"Yeah," she said.

"How'd he pick it out?" he went on, hoping to distract her.

"Well, Bruce Lee is one of Hunter's idols. And you noticed Bruce Lee's little war dance thing he does," she chuckled nervously. "So he was doing that one day, and Hunter and I were incidentally watching _Enter the Dragon_ for the millionth time. One of the fight scenes came on, and Bruce Lee started dancing around with his eyes on the television. Hunter called him Bruce Lee, and the ferret turned around like he was responding to the name." She shrugged. "And Bruce Lee – the ferret – is very acrobatic so…it kind of fit."

Abel was smiling at the anecdote. "And Ernie? Bubbe?"

"They already had names when I adopted them, and I didn't change them."

"That's cool."

Rowan had stopped squeezing the stress ball so strongly, and Abel could hear her heart beating at an almost normal pace now. He kept her chatting all the way to the restaurant, somewhere in the middle having taken her left hand to hold in his, the rough pad of his thumb stroking the back of her hand rhythmically.

----

Reid was getting antsy waiting for Rowan at Nicky's. Did her date go well? Did she have fun? Did they kiss? He quickly shook that last thought out of his head, it would drive him insane. His pool game was already off.

"Losing your touch Garwin?" Abbot provoked.

Reid sneered at him. "Blow me, Abbot."

"Ooh, nice comeback."

"You're up, Reid," Tyler interjected, trying to head off the ensuing argument.

The blond lined up his cue, seeing the perfect combo. He lifted his head from the table, a mischievous grin on his face. "How 'bout we double the bet? I'm feeling lucky tonight."

Tyler glanced at Reid in warning.

Brody and Aaron conferred, then agreed.

Reid took his shot, his eyelids at half mast covering the brief spark that lit them. Reid made his combo shot and laughed smugly. "Pay up, Abbot."

Abbot looked royally pissed, Brody cursed under his breath. Tyler and Reid knocked fists at their win, even if the blond had cheated.

Not too far away, Caleb, Hunter and Pogue saw the exchange, ready to get up and interfere at the first sign of trouble, which would not have been an unexpected event. When Reid and Aaron were in close quarters, threats were generally traded, ending up with fists flying.

"All that testosterone," Pinkie quipped.

"He's so unpleasant," Dizzy said, referring to Abbot. "Why does Reid hate him so much though?"

"Yeah," Kate said. "What's with that?"

Pogue, Caleb and Hunter went silent and looked at them. In the eighth grade Reid had overheard Brody and Aaron plotting to drug Rowan's drink at a party, enough reason to hate Abbot and accrue the rest of their acrimony as well. They never told Rowan.

"It's always been so," Pinkie lamented. "Fated to be foes." His head turned toward said foes. "Oh, my."

Reid and Aaron were in each other's faces, their tolerance-meters almost expended. But Reid was distracted by two people entering Nicky's. It was Rowan and Abel, laughing with one another. Aaron looked where Reid was and half-forgot the current feud himself.

Aaron whistled. "Someone's looking hot tonight." His slimy eyes were glued to Rowan.

"Shut up," Reid growled.

Abbot laughed. "You don't have a claim on her, Garwin."

"I knew she had a body under her school uniform," Brody added, taking no pains to hide his obvious interest in Rowan.

"You can shut your mouth, too," Tyler told him, the normally genial Tyler gone.

Rowan and Abel were coming closer. She smiled when she spotted Reid and Tyler. "Hey, guys." She looked at the pool table then them. "Who won?"

"Us, of course," Reid bragged.

Abel noticed the two other guys at the table eyeing Rowan. It was one thing to admire her, he just didn't like the _way_ they were staring at her. "What are you looking at?" he snapped.

"Just admiring the view," Abbot pushed.

Rowan blushed, though she was not flattered, and immediately felt self-conscious in her outfit.

"Admire another view," Abel warned him, putting his arm around Rowan's waist.

Something in Abel's eyes made Aaron back off, though not without a venomous glance.

Reid, Tyler, Rowan and Abel joined the others at the table.

Dizzy leaned in towards Rowan. "You can give us all the details later tonight." She and Pinkie traded conspiratorial grins, making Rowan blush and tug on her ear, her unconscious sign of discomfort or embarrassment.

Reid couldn't take his eyes off of her. He hadn't told her she looked beautiful before she left, but she did. The words had just been lodged in his throat. He disguised his jealousy and longing with his usual sarcasm and pithy quips, wishing he had decked Aaron earlier just to blow off some steam. It seemed that the rest of the guys were warming up to Abel, too, and that pissed him off even more. Who the hell was this guy to just come into Ipswich, come into Rowan's life and just ferry her away?

Dizzy had gotten up and punched in a slow song on the jukebox. Couples gradually paired off.

"You want to dance?" Abel asked her, knowing that she did like to.

"Okay," she answered somewhat shyly.

They got up and moved to an empty spot where the light was dim. He put his arm around her waist, and his free hand took hers, she settled her hand on his broad shoulder. Even with her boots she just barely reached his shoulder.

"I had fun tonight," she said.

"Me too." Abel was lost in her eyes. What was it about this girl that captivated him so much? She had come into his life – or had he come into hers? – out of nowhere and with one glance she was forever and indelibly etched into his mind, and now his heart.

Rowan hadn't felt like this since…she couldn't remember. To have a guy focused on just her, wanting just her; not revealing a desire and then going off with other girls afterwards. Rowan leaned her head against him, feeling the steady beat of his heart. His chin lightly settled atop her head, they were as close as they could get. Her hair held the faint scent of vanilla, and the skin of her hands was soft. Abel wondered if the rest of the skin on her body was just as silky smooth. Quickly he veered away from those wonderings knowing it would cause a reaction below his waist (that he had fought all night) and he didn't want that at the moment when he was standing so close to her.

"They are, like, so cute together," Dizzy whispered at the table.

Pinkie stared at the dancing couple wistfully. "Oh how I wish my prince would come," he said, causing the others to chuckle. "I'm serious," he insisted.

Kate noticed that the guys, except for Pinkie, were looking at Rowan and her date intensely, scrutinizing the couple, watching to see if Abel would move his hand further down probably or do something inappropriate. Pogue talked about Rowan a lot, it was obvious how much he loved her, and Rowan was like the center of his and the rest of the guys' world. She was an only child so she couldn't quite grasp the concept of such protectiveness.

"Ask her to dance you oaf," Pinkie whispered at Pogue when Kate was looking away.

Pogue looked at Pinkie as if the very idea had never occurred to him or even touched his radar. Pogue hated dancing but he supposed…

"You want to dance?" he asked Kate.

She smiled and his stomach clenched, but in a good way. "Finally." She took his hand and they found a spot.

Pinkie could tell Tyler was aching to ask Dizzy to dance. It was so obvious the guy pined away for Maria. Such a shame she had a boyfriend back in Napa whom she was ever faithful to. He thought Maria and Tyler would make a cute couple. Tired of the hang-dog look on Tyler's face, Pinkie whispered to him, "It is okay to ask her to dance."

Tyler flushed, eyes darting to Maria to see if she had heard, but she hadn't, she was looking wistfully at the couples swaying together. Caleb, Reid and Hunter all smirked at him, three sets of eyes daring him to make a move.

"Go on baby boy," Reid said. "Dare you."

Tyler cleared his throat, hoping his voice wouldn't betray his nervousness. "Do you want to dance?"

Dizzy turned to Tyler with a bright grin on her face. "Come on." She grabbed his hand and practically dragged him.

This was the closest Tyler had ever been to her. She was so pretty with her light brown skin, deep brown eyes, long thick hair. A lot of people thought she was an air-head but she wasn't. She was a true artist who was one of Spensers best, winning blue ribbons all over the place.

Caleb went to the restroom, and Pinkie went to get a soda, leaving Hunter and Reid alone at the table. Hunter observed Reid staring at Rowan and Abel with both jealousy and want warring in his blue eyes. Hunter hoped Reid wouldn't do anything stupid to get between Rowan and Abel.

"There's something off with him," Reid said.

Hunter cocked an eyebrow. "What do you think that is?"

"I don't know," Reid said impatiently. "Just something."

"You're jealous. That's all it is."

Reid's eyes flashed annoyance at his friend. "I'm not…" The words died on his lips. What was the use of denying it to Hunter who had already called him out. "Damn you."

Hunter chuckled under his breath. "People can't wait forever."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're my bro, Reid. But you can be the biggest idiot sometimes," he informed him with a rueful shake of his head. He got up and went to tag a soda.

Reid's eyes trailed after him in contemplation. He knew he was an idiot, he always told himself that he wasn't mature enough for a real relationship, when he got with Rowan he wanted it to be right. _When? She has someone now…idiot._

Idiot.

----

The strange man hidden in the shadows at the back of the bar watched his little brother dance with the pretty girl. Rowan Danvers. Asher had brushed up on Ipswich's history. After all, this was where his birth father came from. Born and died. Asher felt sorry for Abel, caught up in the middle of a family feud that really had nothing to do with him. Not directly, anyway. It wasn't Abel's fault his birth father was a lying, treacherous murderer. Levi Marrok, who was on his death bed back in Alaska. Asher would have given almost anything to watch that bastard die; he was even tempted to head back to Alaska to do just that.

But what was the point?

No, this wasn't one of those movies where the scorned family member wanted to wreak vengeance on the surviving members. Asher sure as hell didn't want to hurt Abel for all the taunting and mind games he played with him. No, he wasn't so much as angry with Abel as hurt. Even a tough guy like Asher could admit it. When he had gone to his brother, covered in blood to explain to him what had happened, Abel hadn't believed a word he had said. So, Asher had run. It was run or be killed. So he had come here, to Ipswich, to find his birth father, only to find that he was dead.

Asher had sensed Abel once he'd come into town. They were only half-brothers but the blood was strong. From a distance he'd followed his moves, where he went, who he talked to. Sending him postcards every week, tracking him in the woods. No, this wasn't one of those movies where the rejected elder brother wanted to kill the younger brother out of spite and resentment. What Asher wanted out of his brother was for him to see the truth. He was tempted to let Abel live in his lies, because the Abel that had come to Ipswich wasn't the Abel he knew. This Abel was disillusioned, untrusting, cynical. Asher could see it in his eyes, the carriage of his shoulders, the tread of his step.

Asher downed half his mug of beer, letting the bitter taste drown his taste buds. This Rowan chick was pretty, even had a pack of brothers eyeing Asher's own brother like a potential threat. Abel looked content in the girl's arms. What right did Asher have to shatter the rest of Abel's faith in his father, in his history? But Asher felt he owed it to his mother, Rebecca Marrok, who had gotten pregnant with him during her first year at Boston University by a guy from the small town of Ipswich. She'd been taken back to Alaska in shame. Luckily, Levi, who had always had a torch for Rebecca offered to marry her, if only to salvage what was left of her dignity. So there Asher Marrok was born, and three years later, Abel Marrok.

And Abel had been sent here to bring Asher "back home." That would be a death sentence. If anything, Asher wanted to keep Abel from going back home. Did his little brother know that he was being covertly supervised by two of Levi's lackeys? Probably not. They were using Abel to catch Asher, only Abel didn't know it. Levi Marrok wanted Asher shut up, and shut up hard.

Not going to happen.

----

Their kiss ended the night perfectly. Abel had driven her home and cut the engine, both hoping and knowing what was coming. He had leaned in, she had leaned in, and made contact. It started out gentle, then their mouths had opened tentatively, and soon they were breathing each other in. Rowan felt her entire body suffuse with heat. Abel felt his body tense like the euphoric feeling he got just before he changed into a werewolf. But he savored it. He savored her sweet, soft lips.

They savored the memory.

* * *

**Ah, young love. o_O**

**I have a picture of Asher up on my profile.**

**Love to know what you think!  
**

**Thanks for reading. :D  
**


	7. In the Dark of the Night

**VII. In the Dark of the Night**

_In the dark of the night evil will find her__  
In the dark of the night just before dawn__  
In the dark of the night terror will strike her  
__In the dark of the night evil will brew  
__Soon she will feel that her nightmares are real__  
In the dark of the night terror comes true  
-Anastasia_

"Freedom!" Reid exclaimed as he walked out of his last class.

It was officially Thanksgiving break and they were all glad they could eschew the uniforms and the Academy.

"Who's up for Nicky's tonight?" Reid asked as they all filed down the hall. "You can even bring Abel," he said to Rowan playfully, tugging her to him.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for your permission, Reid, but he and I are staying in tonight."

"He's coming over?" Caleb asked.

"No, I'm going over to his place," she replied breezily.

Dizzy squealed and did an excited hop. "You didn't tell me that!"

"I feel so uninformed," Pinkie said.

"Not a big deal you guys," Rowan said, but she was smiling. She and Abel saw each other almost everyday, and now that she had a week off they could spend more time together. But just because she had someone new in her life didn't mean that she forgot about her friends.

"And…what are you doing over there?" Caleb asked, eyeing his sister with serious brown eyes.

She tipped her head to the side and put her index finger on her chin in mock contemplation. "I don't know, Cay, I thought we would-"

"Do not joke," he interrupted, seeing the sly look on her face and knowing she was going to say something lewd just to spite them.

Rowan laughed. "I'm making him dinner, okay? Does that meet with your approval?" She glanced at Pogue, Tyler, Reid, Hunter and Caleb.

"I suppose," Pogue said.

"You're all too kind," Rowan said with exaggerated gratitude.

It had begun to snow heavily last week and the cold was sinking into Rowan's bones. Her doctor told her that he wouldn't advise her to drive her motor scooter around, especially since she was prone to pneumonia. So she exited the school and walked with her brother to his car. She already had her stress ball in her hand, squeezing it mercilessly. She slid into the car immediately feeling it close in around her, constricting. But she breathed through it. Some car rides were better than others.

"Ready?" he asked his sister, and she nodded.

He started the car and pulled out of the lot smoothly, always taking extra pains to maneuver the vehicle without mishap when his sister was with him. She kept her eyes closed most of the time.

"So…you and Abel," he spoke. "Getting serious?"

She didn't answer for a moment. Two. "What do you mean by 'serious,' Cay?"

"I wasn't asking you that," he said somewhat strongly, which served to make Rowan grin.

"Abel and I like each other a lot," she replied.

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"But we haven't had sex," - Caleb winced just a tad – "and we haven't even gotten near that line," she said, feeling her brother's obvious relief.

"He hasn't…?"

"Nope," she replied, anticipating his question. "Never."

"Good." Now he could breathe a little easier. A little. No big brother really came to terms with his little sister having sex did they? And Rowan didn't have their mom to talk to about it, and as much as he liked Dizzy and Pinkie, getting advice from them probably wouldn't be the kind of guidance she needed.

And Abel had been the perfect gentleman. Sure, they made out like crazy, well, maybe that was exaggerating, but if they went to his apartment they did find themselves entwined on his couch holding and kissing one another. Making out. They talked a lot, too. Little by little he told her bits and pieces about his family. It was obvious to Rowan that there was a sad story behind his reticence, so she didn't push him even though she was curious. She learned that he had an older half-brother. His mom was dead, his dad was in Alaska.

Rowan understood the pain of a fractured family. She told Abel that her mom was an alcoholic, and her dad had been an addict and was dead. She never got the urge to want to tell people the truth instead of hedging all the time, but she wished with Abel that she could tell him about herself. But it certainly was not just her secret to tell, and she could not make the arbitrary decision to reveal where she came from.

"Do you guys talk a lot?" Caleb asked her. He stopped at a red light.

"Yeah."

The light turned green and he hit the gas. "I know that if you…" How did he word it without discouraging his sister from not reaching out to someone?

"I know I can't tell him about the Covenant." Rowan opened her eyes and looked at her brother. "I haven't even been close to."

"You reading my mind?" he smiled.

Rowan chuckled. "You've got an open face."

"You weren't even looking at my face."

"You're my brother. I don't need to," which made him smile wide.

"Do you like him, Cay?" she asked softly.

Caleb sighed and didn't answer her right away. It was his prerogative as the elder figure to let his sister stew a bit as she waited for an answer. "I think he's a good guy." Caleb had gotten to know Abel as much as he could during a few more outings at Nicky's and the couple of times Abel had come over to their house.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," he allowed as if he were giving her a great boon, and his antics were rewarded with a laugh from Rowan.

"Good, I'm glad you like him. He likes you, too."

"I'm honored," he said, putting a hand over his heart. "Truly."

"Don't make me throw this ball at you," she threatened.

----

Abel had gotten all the things on Rowan's grocery list. She was planning on making him a genuine home-cooked meal, and already he could feel his glands salivating although he wasn't entirely sure what she was going to make. She had also invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner. She had some funny thoughts on the "so-called holiday" herself. He smiled as he put the groceries away, thinking about how unique, intelligent, witty, funny…damn, he could go on all day about what he loved about Rowan.

_Love?_ The word echoed in his mind with his own voice.

He'd only known her about two months but already…

"Don't think about it," he told himself, continuing to stock the fridge that was normally empty but now almost full. "You pull out the 'L' word there's no telling what might happen."

Good advice from himself to himself. Abel had never been in love before. There had been some girls back in Alaska but no one that the word 'love' popped up with. He shoved to the back of his mind the distant future he had or might not have with Rowan. He still hadn't forgotten why he was in Ipswich, although at times he would have liked to. Asher's words continued to plague him. Did his dad know that Asher's birth father was dead? Why had Asher been covered in blood that night? If Abel had listened to his brother when he had had the chance things might not be so complicated right now. But then he would never have come here, never have met Rowan.

Abel wished he could talk to her about this. He had a feeling she would come up with something that made more sense than everything in the past year. What would her reaction be if she knew he was a werewolf? Frightened? Disgusted? Abel wasn't sure his heart could take her rejection.

His eyes roamed to the wall clock. It was only three-thirty, but the sky was growing dim behind the thick gray clouds. It had stopped snowing earlier this afternoon. But there was a fine coat of white on the earth. It made him want to run in the woods because it reminded him of Alaska. Well…he had time. He could drive up to a good secluded area and take to the hills, so to speak. It would certainly do to help work off the heat he felt when he was around Rowan. Abel couldn't help his imagination from running wild when it came to her. Sometimes he had to even pull away when he was kissing her because the want was so painful, literally and metaphorically. Heavy on the literal.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath. He'd gotten himself all worked up.

Idly checking the time again he figured he could get in a good run and be back by five or so, because Rowan said she would be here about five-thirty. Abel worried about her driving everywhere on her motor scooter, especially in this weather. When he took her out he tried to take her places close by so they wouldn't have to drive for too long, or during times when the traffic wouldn't be too heavy. She didn't get a lot of sleep at night, he knew. Some days were more telling than others even though she always had a smile for him.

So many layers to Rowan and he wanted to peel away every one of them.

----

"Just let me drive you," Caleb said.

Rowan suppressed a sigh. She hated arguing with her brother about getting into a car. It wasn't snowing at the moment and the drive to Abel's apartment wasn't that far.

"I've already politely declined," Rowan said mock-primness to hide her agitation.

"And then you're going to ride back in the dark," Caleb added, losing his patience.

Who knew? Abel would probably offer to take her back home with the same wary concern in his eyes as Caleb. Rowan hastily put on her thick coat, buttoning it to its last button, and then put her scarf around her neck.

"I have to go," she said.

Caleb walked her to the front door, tight-lipped and unsmiling. He noticed the slight limp she walked with because the cold was getting to her bones, and he knew there was no talking her out of this. Her fear was crowding her judgment.

"Call me when you get there at least," he grumbled.

"I will, Cay." She kissed him on the cheek and let herself out, the cold instantly biting into her face and fighting its way through the barrier that was her clothing. Carefully she walked down the stone stairs even though they had been doused with salt earlier. Couldn't be too careful, definitely did not need another broken hip. She put her gloves on and started her scooter, giving her brother one last wave before she sped off down the long driveway.

----

For some reason Rowan decided to take the scenic route on the way to Abel's. The covering on her helmet prevented the wind from gnashing her face so it was no trouble to be out a little longer than she needed to. Her bike made a steady, deep hum as she rode that was relaxing in its consistence.

She barely noticed the change in atmosphere. She blinked for one second and then something was off. Suddenly she could no longer hear the hum of her bike, or the wind, or the crackly sound that her tires made across the asphalt. The world around her seemed way too still, reminding her of when she had awoken last Christmas Eve to find that the area around her house had been put into some kind of stasis; when that assassin had called out to her…

"Keeper…"

She heard it now, coming from each side. Rowan's bike skidded but she got control again. Should she drive on or stop and confront whatever it was? Unless she had just been hearing things.

"Keeper…"

Definitely not hearing things. Rowan blinked and the nanosecond her eyes had been closed, when they opened, twenty feet in front of her was a cloaked figure standing as still as a statue. Rowan put the brakes on, steadying herself with her feet on each side of the scooter. The engine was still on, but made no noise. For what seemed like forever Rowan and the hooded figure merely faced each other.

She wondered how he would attack this time. Would he come after her like a dart as his predecessor had done? The only sound she heard now was the tattoo her terrified heart was drumming. She hadn't been scared the last time, so what paralyzed her in fear now? Because they caught her at a weak moment in her life when her mental stability could come apart in seconds? Or because she knew Gabriel wasn't here to help her this time?

"Face me," the figure said, his voice sounded less whispery and more human.

Against her better judgment Rowan cut the engine, took off her helmet, kicked the stand on her scooter and stood on her own. She barely got a second to stand before he came at her, a green eerie light surrounding him. Rowan reacted reflexively with a magic barrier that simply knocked him back about three feet onto his ass. Like her brothers, Rowan did not throw "energy balls" to catapult people or things away. She did not have this option.

So she spun on her heel and ran into the woods, all the while thinking of a strategy because she knew this running away was only buying her time. Her doctor had warned her about running, it having only been about six months since her accident, but caution had to be thrown to the proverbial wind right now. She wasn't any slouch when it came to running; she and Ernie always took runs together either in the morning or at night, though less often for the obvious reasons.

She stopped when the stitch in her side began to slow her down. She gasped for breath and leaned on her left leg to take the pressure off of her hip and leg. Rowan didn't even hear him, but felt the hit on her back and she flew forward onto the snow laden ground, the wind knocked out of her. She coughed raggedly and got on all fours to support herself.

"That was lame," she said. "Attacking me from behind." She turned her head and he was standing some ten feet away, his head revealed.

He wasn't very tall, about five-ten, and the cloak made his body androgynous and insubstantial. His skin was pale, his eyes too, and he was bald. But he was not deformed like the last one had been; the last one had had a hunch on his back, rotten teeth, and some sort of dermatologic ailment that could have rivaled any teen's acne woes.

"Up," the warlock said. "Face me."

Rowan's previous fear was slipping into ambivalent acceptance. She let her head drop and inhaled the earth's energy, let it fill her until part of her was connected to it. Lightning zapped the sky, cracking like leather whips; wind blew around them, breaking the stillness. A luminescent bolt hit the ground right in front of the warlock, startling him into stepping back. A burnt patch marred the earth now.

Bolts continued to fly at the cloaked man. Rowan wasn't sure if she was trying to hit him or force him into retreating. Gabriel had killed the first assassin, could Rowan find it in herself to kill this one, even if it was out of self-defense?

"Enough!" he yelled, exasperated.

Rowan dodged his flail of green fire that slicked out at her like a cobra. It hit the ground and the earth exploded. Rowan was crouching behind a tree, her bare hands pressed flat against the trunk as she murmured words under her breath. The ground rumbled and energy built beneath it like a tunnel, rushing at the warlock and bursting beneath his feet which sent him flying. Rowan rose unsteadily to her feet only to be knocked back by an invisible force. She felt her body sail through the air until a tree stopped her movement when the right side of her body banged into it and she fell to the ground, her head making contact with the frosted ground in the process.

He was standing over her, but he was a blurry figure now as she looked up at him. He smiled at her and kneeled, head tilting to the side as if he were truly contemplating her fate. A pale hand slithered out from his cloak and he stroked her cheek. His flesh was colder than the snow.

"How does fate expect a creature like you to defeat us?" he asked her.

His hand left her face to pull out a vicious dagger from his other sleeve. The tip of it trailed down the side of her face, enough to make a dent but not enough to draw blood.

"I should cut out your pretty eyes and add them to my collection," he mused.

A howl wailed in the distance, traveling to their ears like a song from faraway. The warlock appeared slightly confused, his attention drawn to the direction from which it had come. Taking advantage of his lost attention, Rowan's hand struck out and grabbed his wrist that held the dagger. His head whipped to her in surprise.

"_Take the flame inside you/Burn and burn below/Fire seed and fire seed/and make the magic grow…"_

Rowan repeated the chant and the skin began to sizzle on the warlock's wrist. He screamed and dropped the dagger and tried to break Rowan's grip. She wasn't a strong person, her upper-body strength had always sucked so when he tried to make her let go she had to fight with everything she had not to. Taking hold of his wits he counteracted with his own spell and pain needled her body, the ache building, until she could take no more and she had to release him.

He snatched up his dagger and was ready to plunge it into her heart when he was blasted up into the air…up…up…and he came back down in a free fall of epic proportions. His body hit the ground with a thud. A growl emerged from the thick of the woods and a wolf leapt through and pounced on the warlock, clawing at his face. The warlock screamed and lashed out with his dagger.

Rowan heard someone say her name.

"Are you okay?" Hunter asked her.

Everything was so confusing now. Where did Hunter come from?

"Beast of hell!" the warlock yelled, and the wolf was thrown back. He got up none to gracefully, covered in blood, his robe in tatters, and stared venom at Rowan. A static energy collected in front of him, ready to deal the final blow, but it stopped two inches in front of her face, suspended in air, and was then chucked back at the warlock who dodged it.

It was enough for Hunter. He used his kinetic energy to pull the warlock to him so fast he was a blur. Hunter was taller than the man, and his large hands snuck out, one under his chin, one on the side of his head, twisted, and a loud crack echoed through the forest.

The warlock fell to the ground. Never to rise again.

Hunter was filled with anger, adrenaline pumped through his body. He couldn't stop his telekinesis from spreading and branches began to break in half and fall from trees as even the thick ones snapped like twigs and free fell to the ground.

He shook his head and concentrated to control his power. Mastering it in seconds, he focused his attention back on Rowan. He kneeled by her. Just above her temple her skin had split and blood flowed down her face. Her cheek was bruised.

"Hunter?" she murmured.

"It's me, Row." He looked around, eyes double-taking on the wolf. Rowan followed his stare; slowly…she knew those eyes.

"Abel?" she whispered.

Hunter thought she was confused, and he was ready to attack if need be, but the wolf looked somewhat benevolent.

"Come on," Hunter said, easily collecting her light form in his arms, "I have to get you to a hospital." But he didn't have a car. He was only in shoes, T-shirt and jeans, and was for all intents and purposes, in the middle of nowhere. Hunter suspected Rowan might have a concussion. He backed up slowly, not wanting to give his back to the wolf.

The four-legged animal barked though and danced to the side.

"Abel…" Rowan said again, eyes glazed over.

The wolf went still, hair disappeared, muzzle, four legs turned back into two. Abel stood before them naked and very unaware of the snow and cold. He walked towards them, concerned eyes on Rowan.

"Come on," he said. "My truck's not far from here."

Without a word, and a now unconscious Rowan in his arms, Hunter followed.

* * *

**Don't worry, I'll explain how Hunter got there. LOL. **


	8. Dark Chest of Wonders

**VIII. Dark Chest of Wonders**

_Once I knew all the tales  
__It's time to turn back time  
__Follow the pale moonlight  
__Once I wished for this night  
Faith brought me here__  
It's time to cut the rope and fly  
-Nightwish_

"_Now I know what it feels like to lose the person I love the most in the world…"_

"_Just…don't leave me okay?"_

"_I need you, Rowan. I love you…"_

Rowan wondered who was speaking to her as if she were dying. It sounded like Reid's voice but her head was all muddled and her body ached. Her eyelids felt heavy, and she struggled to open them. It took a minute for her vision to adjust. The hospital room was dim and quiet, her brother was sleeping in a chair by the window that revealed a dark world outside. Rowan's throat was parched, her body felt heavy. So, here she was, back in the hospital as a patient. This was getting ridiculous. Pain shot through her body as she set herself up on the bed, so she gave that up and assessed her injuries. A removable leg cast was on her right leg, and a thick bandage covered her temple. Oh, joy.

She wasn't entirely sure what day it was but the events that brought her here came back to her. The warlock, Hunter appearing out of nowhere, then Abel the werewolf. Who'd of thunk it? Abel had attacked the warlock and…Hunter had snapped his neck. God, Hunter had killed someone…for her. What must be going through his mind, she wondered. She hated that he was involved more than ever.

Caleb stirred in the chair and woke up. He smiled. "Hey."

"Hey," she said, her voice scratchy.

Caleb brought the chair closer so it was next to her bed and looked at her. "You're determined to give me a heart attack, aren't you?" Despite his joking tone, his words were riddled with the delirious relief that came after being scared to death for someone you loved. He poured some water for her and let her sip through the straw.

"Thanks." Rowan rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, touched the bandage on her head. "What day is it?"

"It's still Friday, a little past seven-thirty."

"That's it?"

He nodded. "They're going to keep you here over night. They're worried about your previous head injury, and you've got a concussion, sprained wrist, and you hit your leg in the same spot it was broken. It's not broken now, but the doctor said there would be some swelling and bruising."

"Ah…" She nodded. "Where's mom?"

Caleb looked away, then back at her. "Tyler's mom took her home."

"Oh," she said quietly, then she breathed a less than half-hearted self-deprecating chuckle. "I've been putting her through the wringer haven't I?"

"It's not your fault," he said.

"Yeah."

"Everyone else is in the waiting room," he told her, hoping it would make her feel better. "Abel, too."

Rowan tried to hide her surprise. Did that mean he wasn't mad at her? She wondered how shocked he was that she was a witch.

"I'll tell them you're awake and get the doctor." He kissed her lightly on the forehead.

Five minutes later her room was filled with a hoard of guys. Abel stood in the back, letting her brothers greet her first.

"Evel Knievel you are not," Reid told her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said to him. Her eyes flashed to Hunter and she gathered he hadn't told them how she got in her current condition.

"You skid off your bike," Tyler said.

Well, if that was the story, Rowan thought, she could go with that. "Oh."

"You don't remember?" Pogue asked her.

She did a one-shouldered shrug.

"Weren't you wearing your helmet?" Tyler interrogated.

"Uh…_yeah_," she said, thinking up something on the spot. "I fell off my bike, took my helmet off because I was dizzy, I tried to get up but did another head-slash-ass-plant." She pointed to her head wound.

"Well, you won't be riding your scooter for some time, Rowan," the doctor said, clearing a path through the guys.

The nurse followed with a disapproving mug on her face. "She needs her rest, boys. You can visit later."

"Ah, Darlene," Reid began, ready to butter up the fifty-something, plump, gray-haired nurse. "You wouldn't keep us away from family, would you?"

It wasn't surprising that they were acquainted with the staff as Rowan's face usual popped up in this hospital. As a patient or when visiting the children's ward.

"Nurse Brigham is right," Doctor Payton said. Doc Payton was a forty-something, tall, pretty, good-natured individual. She wore light makeup and her brown hair was cut in a smart chin-length bob.

They cleared out not without grumbling.

"Wait, can I talk to Abel for two minutes?" Rowan asked Doc Payton.

Nurse Brigham pursed her lips. The doc looked dubious, but said. "Two minutes."

Then Abel and Rowan were left alone. He approached her cautiously and took the unoccupied chair.

"You know how in the movies two people find out something about each other and they get angry and don't talk for days?" Rowan began. "Do you think we can skip that and cut to the chase?"

"Okay," Abel said.

"Are you mad at me?" Rowan asked.

He smiled a bit. "No… Are you mad at me?"

"No, nothing to be mad about," Rowan said.

The tension left his shoulders and he breathed a sigh of relief. "So…a witch."

"And a werewolf," Rowan said.

"Did you know?" Abel asked.

"No, but I did sense an 'otherness' about you."

"Same here."

Her eyebrows rose. "Really?"

He nodded. "Does your family know?"

"Yeah."

Nurse Brigham whooshed in. "Two minutes are up."

"Did you have a stop-watch?" Rowan asked her.

The nurse's lips twitched in amusement.

"All right," Abel said, getting up. "Call me when you get out, okay?"

"I will," she promised.

Heedless of the audience, he leaned down and kissed her on her mouth. "I'm glad you're okay." He stroked her cheek and was gone.

Doc Payton came back in with a saccharine smile on her face. Rowan blushed. The doctor let Caleb in the room because he was blood-related and her mother wasn't there. He sat in the chair while the nurse took her blood pressure, and the doctor shined a light in her eyes.

"You took quite a tumble," she said, and Caleb's 'hmmph' was audible in the background. "I asked your brother these questions, but I'd like to hear it from you. How's your sleeping been?"

Rowan's eyes flicked to Caleb, wondering what little tid-bits he had revealed to the doctor. Her brother looked back at her, unrepentant. "It could be better, I suppose," she replied.

"How many hours a night would you say?"

Rowan shrugged. "Four…five on a good night maybe."

"Have you taken any sleeping pills?"

"Nope."

"Pain killers?"

"Nope."

"How about your anti-anxiety medication? Are you taking that as you should?" Doctor Payton was gazing at her with a medical professional's assessment, probing for truth with sympathetic but determined eyes.

"Always," she said.

"Are your panic attacks occurring less often?"

"No more or less than they usually do."

"How about in the car?"

Rowan sighed. It was like a broken record, she realized. Being asked these questions and relating the same answers; it meant she wasn't getting better.

"Row," Caleb prompted in a gentle but firm voice.

"The anxiety attacks hit me more often in the car than the panic attacks do," she said.

The doctor nodded in understanding. "Been going to your counseling sessions?"

Rowan nodded. The doctor asked her a few more questions for her records and declared herself finished.

"Not that I don't dig the facilities," Rowan said, "but when do I get to blow this popstand?"

Doc Payton laughed lightly. "If things are looking good tomorrow, I'd say noon at the latest."

The siblings were left alone in the room. "You should go home, Cay," Rowan said.

He shook his head. "I'll stay."

"Someone has to feed the kids dinner."

"Hunter will."

Nurse Brigham came in with an extra blanket and pillow for Caleb. She thought Rowan's brother was the sweetest thing for taking care of her like he did, and vice versa. She thought it was just a darned shame that their mother couldn't get it together to take care of her two wonderful children. Sometimes the world just wasn't fair.

----

The light was on in Abel's apartment and he knew he hadn't left it on. He quietly ascended the steps at the back of the garage that led to the front door of his apartment. He could smell food cooking…The door was unlocked and…

"Finally got home," Asher's voice trailed to Abel from the small kitchen nook.

Abel stared dumbfounded at his older brother who was standing at the counter, chopping up food and throwing it onto a frying pan.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Cooking," Asher said.

"I see that," Abel growled. "Why?"

Asher didn't answer for a second. "How's your girlfriend?"

Abel's back stiffened. "Leave her out of this."

Asher laughed dryly. "Christ." He shook his head and turned to his brother incredulously. "You think I have it out for your girlfriend? I know I can be a bastard sometimes but you've never seen me attack someone unprovoked have you?"

The younger brother was silent.

Asher scoffed. "Branded for life," he muttered.

Abel swallowed, willing his body to relax. He stepped into the kitchen and leaned against the wall. "She's going to be fine."

Asher nodded. "She almost had that dude for a second."

"You saw?" Abel asked, surprised. "Why were you there?"

"I was following you," he said breezily.

"Why?"

"Just looking out for my kid brother."

Abel snorted. "I'm not buying that."

Asher lifted a shoulder and let it drop. "Believe what you want. You always do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

"Nothing." Asher forced cheer into his voice. "So, your girlfriend's a witch. That's something. How's she taking your four-legged alter ego?"

"Doesn't have the slightest problem with it."

"What about that other guy?"

"Hunter?" He shrugged. "Doesn't have an issue either."

"What an accepting town," Asher quipped. "What was up with that other guy?" he asked after a beat of silence.

Abel's brow furrowed in confusion. "What other guy?"

"After you left, some guy just popped up out of thin air and dissolved that warlock. Took the guy's knife with him and then disappeared the way he came."

He was shaking his head slowly. "I don't know."

"I think he saw me though. Looked right at me and winked." He chuckled.

Abel didn't know what was going on, or why exactly Asher was here other than to raid his kitchen, but it was almost like old times, even though he'd never seen Asher cook before.

"Since when do you cook?"

"I'm a bachelor now, Abel," he said as if it should have been obvious. "And unlike you, I can't eat microwavable shit everyday." He gestured to the fridge. "This is the first time since you've been here when there's been more than milk and bread in the fridge."

"You've been here before?" Abel asked testily.

Asher ignored him with expert aplomb. "What prompted the shopping spree?"

"Don't you know?" Abel mocked.

"The puss on your face doesn't become you, little brother."

Abel smirked. "Rowan was going to cook me dinner."

Asher stopped what he was doing. "No shit?" He smiled. "She's rich, she's a witch, she gets straight A's, _and_ she can cook? Hell, brother, you hit the girlfriend jackpot."

"How do you know she gets straight A's?" Asher knew too much about Rowan than Abel was comfortable with.

"Hacked into Spensers' computer. Did some research on the town. Danvers. Her family is one of the founders of this place. Old money. Richer than Midas." He began to put food into some tortillas, set some plates and napkins at the table. "Eat."

"Fajitas?" He slid the chair out and sat down.

The brothers sat in silence at the table, the only sounds were that of their chewing and the hum of the refrigerator.

"Why've you been following me, Asher?" Abel finally asked.

"You're my brother," was his reply.

"I thought you hated me."

Asher shook his head, eyes averted from Abel.

"Then will you come home?" Abel asked.

Asher scoffed, looked at his brother with something akin to pity. Should he try to tell him, or wait? He had had a tough night with his girl almost getting murdered, so later was probably a better time to reveal the fact that he wasn't the only one following Abel's moves. That Levi Marrok had ulterior motives in asking his son to track Asher down and "bring him home."

"We'll talk later," Asher hedged. "I'll make you another fajita."

----

"Ready to spring this joint?" Reid asked her, wide smile on his face.

It was eleven-thirty in the morning, Rowan was in a wheelchair in her hospital room, dreading the ensuing car ride. She had inquired about one of those powered wheelchairs that old people used, naturally her curiosity had been good-naturedly brushed aside.

"I am so thrilled I could piss myself," she replied dryly.

"That's not cool," Reid said, face scrunched. "Let's wheel." He grabbed the handles of her wheelchair and was about to exit the room but she hit the brake.

"Wait, I have to ask you something." She needed to know if he had been in her room last night. The words she had heard…

"… _lose the person I love the most in the world…"_

"_I need you, Rowan. I love you…"_

"Do I want to ravage you senseless?" Reid asked as if he were echoing Rowan. "Yes, definitely. Do we have time? 'Fraid not. Damn it."

Rowan laughed. "Perv."

"Ouch!" He pointed to his heart. "That hit me here, Row."

"Sorry, Reid."

"Okay…" he sighed. "I'll forgive you in exchange for a kiss."

"Ah, sorry again. But I'm taken."

He leaned down and held the wheelchair's armrests. "We can pretend you're not," he suggested. His blue eyes stared down at her intently, his lips were curved upwards mischievously. Their foreheads were almost touching

"You've always teased me," she said, her voice soft, not sure if she was joking or being serious. Rowan swallowed a lump in her throat and broke their stare.

Before she did Reid thought he saw a veil of hurt in her eyes. He wanted to call her back but Caleb arrived just then with Ernie.

"Hey!" Rowan smiled, burying her head in Ernie's coat. He was wearing his therapy-dog vest, looking quite the professional. Ernie walked alongside her wheelchair while Caleb wheeled her out of the hospital and Reid carried her crutches. "Did you bring his seatbelt?" Rowan asked.

"I would never forget it," Caleb said. He thought bringing Ernie would be a good distraction for Rowan.

It was like déjà vu. Being wheeled towards the automatic doors and out to the parking lot, the wheelchair jerking a bit over the gravel. Reid buckled up Ernie in the backseat while Caleb helped her in the car next to the dog. So he drove them home, Rowan concentrating on Ernie, Reid oddly quiet in the front seat.

The drive went as smoothly as could be expected and when they got home Rowan was carried up to her room.

"Absolutely ridiculous," she muttered as Hunter ascended the stairs.

"We have to talk," he said.

"Okay. After I shower though." It took some maneuvering, but Rowan was an expert at it by now, but she showered, brushed her teeth, changed the bandage on her head, got dressed in drawstring pants and a long sleeved thermal shirt before putting her leg brace back on. She combed out her hair and braided it, and then Hunter helped her get situated comfortably in bed.

"Caleb's making you soup, I think," he said, sitting on the bed with her.

"As long as Reid's not making it," she quipped. "So, how did you appear in the woods?"

"Yeah, that," Hunter replied, running his fingers through his hair. "I called my uncle and told him about that, and he said when a Shepherd has a really strong connection to the person he's protecting, the Shepherd can tell when she's in danger."

"You could?"

"Yeah, it was weird. I was in my room and all of a sudden I felt tense and kind of panicky, like something bad was going to happen. And I just knew…I _knew_ it was you, and you were in trouble, but I didn't know where you were. It was like building in my chest that I _had_ to get to you, and then…" His hands gestured ambiguously. "I was there."

"And you killed someone to save me," she whispered.

His jade eyes locked on hers. "Don't let that get to you Row. I would do it again in a heartbeat."

"But…"

"Listen," he sighed. "I know I should be freaked out, or feel bad or something, but my only concern then and now is you. I looked into that warlock's eyes, Rowan, and there wasn't anything in there."

Rowan looked away, feeling tired, wrung out and haunted. "I would hate for this to keep you up at night."

"It won't," Hunter assured her. "The only thing that would keep me up at night was if something happened to you." _And I won't let it._

_

* * *

  
_


	9. Original Sin

**IX. Original Sin**

_The gods visit the sins__  
of the fathers upon the children.  
-Euripides_

Two weeks passed since Rowan's encounter with the warlock. It still largely haunted her, and in her dreams now were nightmares of Hunter being injured or worse. She watched out for any changes in Hunter, to see if he was being ill affected from that day, but he did not appear bothered, as he said he didn't. It was a small comfort. Now that Rowan knew about Abel, he was more open with her about his life. There were still some things he hedged about, not because he had to keep them a secret, but because they were just painful things to say and to put them into words and speak them aloud would make it real. His mother really was dead, he'd told her, his father was sick and he had come to Ipswich to bring his half-brother, Asher, back home because his father, Levi Marrok, wanted to make peace with him. Rowan had yet to meet Abel's older brother, but from the way Abel spoke about him, she gathered that he loved him, yet there was a rift between brothers.

Rowan showed Abel some of her magic. She did not tell him about the Covenant, because again, it was not just her secret to tell. Hunter let her know it was okay if she wanted to tell Abel about him. It was less lying she would have to do.

But two days ago Abel became sort of distant. He had called her up and said he had some things to take care of. There was more to it, but Rowan respected his need for distance. Or she had for the last two days, because now she was plain worried about him.

It was all this Rowan was thinking about in English class. It was Friday and she was waiting for the weekend to start. She still wore her leg brace and getting around was a bitch, luckily Spensers had installed a couple of elevators for the physically impaired about twenty years ago. Her brothers catered to her even though she insisted that they didn't have to. She was driven to and from work, to and from school, to the humane society where she volunteered and the Colony house where she still visited her dad every Sunday.

The bell rang and Rowan put her books in her book bag, taking her time. No rush. Stalling, the slower she went the less sooner she would have to get in the car. Tyler pilfered her bag before she could put it on, claiming she didn't need the extra weight on her leg. Rowan had been able to discard the crutches by now. He walked her to her locker, making sure no one bumped into her.

"Party at the Dells tonight," Reid informed them, always happy it was the weekend.

Rowan was putting away her things in her locker, the inside was decorated with pictures, stickers that decried sorts of animal cruelty, and stickers that encouraged the preservation of animal rights. It smelled a mix of cedar and bird seed. She took her jacket off the hook and put it on over her blazer.

"You coming?" he asked her.

She shrugged.

"You haven't gone to one party at the Dells yet, you know," he told her, saying it as if she were missing the greatest thing on Earth.

"Bonfires and beer," Hunter quipped. "We're missing out."

Reid rolled his eyes.

"You know, no matter what you wear to the beach, sand gets everywhere," Pinkie mused philosophically.

Reid's face scrunched up. "Pinks, I don't need to know what gets in your everywhere."

Pinkie scoffed, donning a prim mask of dismissal. "It's not nearly so bad as what _and_ who gets in your everywhere." He gave Reid a very knowing look. "Just last weekend…"

"Shut up!" Reid snapped.

A chorus 'oohs' and heckles passed through their group.

"He has a point," Pogue said.

"What happened last weekend?" Rowan asked. She knew there had been a party, but was out on a date with Abel that night.

"Nothing," Reid said, glaring icebergs at Pinkie, and the rest of them.

Tyler averted his eyes, hoping the can of worms would not be opened.

"O…k…" Rowan said. She dismissed it, put her beanie and scarf on, shut her locker; Caleb took her bag and they began to walk out of the school. They said bye to everyone, Pogue and Hunter going in their direction where their bikes were. "They get to ride their bikes," she mused.

"Sorry, lil bit, but the doc said you couldn't even ride with us," Pogue commiserated.

"That's not it. You guys just don't want to be seen with me and my unfashionable brace." She sniffed.

"Never!" Hunter insisted, going along with her parody of a friend scorned.

"Stop stalling, Row," Caleb said, putting his arm around her. "I'm a good driver, aren't I?"

"I suppose," she replied, not without a grudge.

They parted ways, all leaving school grounds in their respective vehicles.

"Do you think you could drop me off at Abel's apartment?" she asked Caleb.

"I guess. Why?"

She shrugged. "He's…been down about something."

"You guys have a fight?"

She shook her head. "Nothing like that."

He nodded, thinking that he didn't know much about where Abel came from. "Where are his parents?"

Rowan was surprised by the inquiry. "His dad is sick, and his mom's dead."

Caleb knew about that all too well, only with him and his sister it was the other way around. "No siblings?"

"He has a half-brother," she said, looking out the window, stress ball being stressed. "I think they're estranged."

"Why is here all the way from Alaska? Do you know?"

"Uh…his brother lives here."

"I thought you said they were estranged."

"I guess he's trying to become un-estranged," Rowan replied.

Caleb drove through town, passing the pharmacy, the library, Beans, finally coming to the garage. "Do you want me to wait for you?" he asked.

"No, that's okay."

He felt oddly uncomfortable with this, sure, he had told his sister that he liked Abel well enough, but Rowan's answers hadn't yielded much information, and he wondered if it was because Rowan didn't know too much about whom Abel was either. And that worried him.

"Will you feed the kids when you get home?" she asked him.

"Yeah."

"Oh! And make sure Bruce Lee doesn't-"

"Steal any of Ernie's food," Caleb finished with a wry smirk. "I know. You put it up on the message board." That message being one of many Rowan had written in her neat script on the dry-erase board in the kitchen.

"Thank you." She leaned over and gave her brother a kiss on the cheek before exiting the car.

"Call me if you need a ride back," he said. "I mean it."

Rowan nodded and waved him away. She walked up the steps to Abel's apartment carefully, lest she slip. It was cold and the wind bit her face, the tip of her nose was red, and in a few more minutes her teeth would start chattering if she didn't get somewhere warm. She realized belatedly that she probably should have called before she came over. Too late now.

She knocked. It was his day off, and his truck was here, so… She knocked again.

The door opened and a beleaguered looking Abel stood before her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking him up and down, concern evident.

His head hung ever so slightly and he shook his head. "Nothing…I…"

"Abel…"

It was the sound of his name, uttered so softly and rich with worry that did him in. He stepped back so she could enter, he shut the door, and Rowan enveloped him in her arms. He was actually taken aback that it took a few seconds to wrap his own arms around her, and he wrapped them tightly. Abel buried his face in her neck, inhaled, soothed by the familiar scent of her.

"You can talk to me you know," she said gently.

He nodded, slowly letting her out of his bear hug. He took her coat, blazer, and beanie, helped her to the couch.

"You shouldn't have walked up those stairs," he chastised.

Rowan smiled. "You sound like my brothers now."

His grin was genuine, but tired, sluggish. "I'll make you some tea."

Rowan knew he was stalling, but she let him have his time to collect his thoughts. She looked around his apartment, not for the first time. The walls were bare; he used the fold-out couch as a bed. The bathroom was small with a shower stall, toilet, the usual. And there was a small linen closet where he put his clothes. It was cozy, but she wondered where the pictures were…pictures of anything. Not even plant, or a goldfish.

She had been stricken to see that he ate microwavable meals most every day. Food was nourishment, and Rowan had never let her brothers go with microwavable food on a daily basis. Everyone deserved and needed a home-cooked meal, Rowan had said to Abel. But buying the tea for her had been his idea.

He came back with a steaming mug now, set it on the table.

"Thank you." Rowan took his hand, sensing he needed it. The dam was about to break, and Abel needed something to tether him to keep from drowning.

_Three days ago…_

"_I'm a little tired of his cloak and dagger thing, Asher," Abel said, coming into his apartment to encounter another surprise visit from his brother. "I don't know where you live, where you stay, who you hang out with, but you come unannounced-"_

"_Now is that any way to treat your elders?" Asher joked. He tsked. "Youth these days. No respect."_

"_Ha-ha." He threw his jacket over the couch. "You have something to tell me. You're stalling."_

_Asher continued to sit idly on the couch, boots perched on the coffee table, newspaper in hand. "Why do you have_ The Seven Year Itch_ circled on here?" He was pointing to the movie section._

_Abel snatched the newspaper from his brother. "I was going to take Rowan. She likes Marilyn Monroe."_

_Asher laughed. "Oh, man, you got it bad. Sitting through two hours of an old movie for your girlfriend. Doesn't she have it on DVD or something?"_

_Abel rolled his eyes, not bothering to explain. "Well?"_

"_I'm not sure you're ready to hear it. You seem to have a predilection for overreacting…"_

"_Screw you," Abel snapped. _

"_You won't like it," Asher told him, sobering._

"_Is it about your birth father?"_

_The older brother's eyes darkened and his mirth officially abated. "About your birth father, too." He stood up and went to the window, looking out into the dark night. The little town of Ipswich seemed deserted at this hour, all the small shops had their lights out, the clock tower in the distance appeared forlorn. _

_Abel sat on the couch, didn't say anything, not wanting to disturb whatever thoughts his brother was collecting. He steeled himself for information he knew would change his life forever. But he could not bury his head in the sand anymore. There was more to this trip that he had been sent on. _

"_You know Mom went to Boston University," he began, still looking out the window. "Her freshman year she met another student, Abram Forrester. He was a wilderness guide, ecology major, one year away from getting his bachelors. Ten years ago he disappeared. He took two guys, masquerading as nature enthusiasts, in the Salem Woods, never seen again."_

"_And the two guys?" Abel ventured._

_Asher turned his head. "Disappeared too. Search parties, search dogs, cadaver dogs, but not a trace. Nothing. Abram's family was baffled, so was everyone else who knew him because he knew every trail, every rock and tree like the back of his hand. No way would he have gotten lost."_

_Abel was afraid to think it. "So they didn't find anything? No body? Clothes? What about their gear?"_

"_Nothing." He had gone back to staring out the window. "Footprints were gone, too." Asher scoffed under his breath. "They did a thorough job."_

_Beat of silence, then: "Who?"_

_Asher was quieter for longer. "Do you remember, ten years ago Levi's two best friends, Hayden and Christopher, your godfathers, they left for a little while. Of course, they didn't use their birth names when they signed up for the wilderness trek. After a few weeks of searching, the cops got wise and checked them out. Couldn't find a damned thing about them. No birthdates, social security, driver's license" Asher turned to face his brother now. 'You see where I'm going, Abel?"_

_Abel swallowed a jagged lump in his throat. He couldn't imagine his godfathers going across the country to kill someone. These were the men who had bounced him on their knees, men he hunted with, men who were supposed to be his family. And his father had sent them to do that._

"_Levi Marrok always had a thing for Mom," Asher continued. "When she got pregnant, by a human, her dad yanked her out of college. She wasn't showing when she got back home. Levi offered to marry her. She wanted to stay with Abram, they were in love. Mom didn't even get to say goodbye." A wealth of bitterness seared his words; the pain of the injustice was palpable. _

"_Did Abram know about Mom?"_

"_No. And he never got to know about me."_

_Abel realized how blind he had been. He had never understood why his mom and dad were so standoffish to Asher. Why the entire community had something against his older brother. He was half-human, and Abel hadn't known that until a year ago. So, some things made sense now. Some things._

"_Mom never stopped loving him. I always thought she didn't love me either, or she was disappointed in me somehow because she never…she didn't treat me like she did you when we were around people. It was only when it was me and her that she looked at me…" – he cleared his throat – "like I meant something to her." He turned back around now. "She told me who I was when I was sixteen. I don't know how Levi knew she had told me, but he was angry about it."_

_Abel could see that. Levi was a proud man, he wouldn't have liked anyone bringing up the subject of Asher's paternity; not because he saw himself as Asher's father, but because he was the offspring of Rebecca and the man she loved, the human she had loved. _

"_That night, during that large pack hunt, Mom found out about what Levi had done, sending Hayden and Christopher to kill Abram. That's about all I know. Whatever led up to that night died with Mom, and lives with Levi. But they were alone, by the hot spring, everyone else was miles away hunting, I hung back. I heard the tail end of the fight, her telling him that she knew. Mom went after him, screaming and clawing, saying how much she hated him and always hated him. Finally he struck back." Asher was breathing hard, his eyes shut, remembering. "He was bigger and stronger than she was, and she just flew back…and didn't get up." _

_Abel wanted to shut his ears._

"_He broke her neck with that one hit," Asher went on. "I saw red, and I attacked him. Eighteen years of hatred just came out…"_

_Abel knew the rest. As far away as they all had been, they heard the howls of two males fighting. As a whole they went to them, father and adopted son were covered in blood. Mom laying dead. Levi pointed the blame on Asher, saying he had killed his mother. But it had been the other way around. _

"_I knew they would never have believed me. Not for a second," Asher said. So he had run, not out of cowardice, but preservation. _

_And two days later, Asher had snuck back to talk to Abel, but Abel shunned him. Now, in the dim apartment, head in hands, Abel screamed inside. He had always looked up to his father, revered him._

_Asher could feel his brother's grief. But at least now he knew. The veil of conspiracy had been pulled back. He sighed and plunked down next to Abel, the telling having drained him. Brother and brother sat there in a silence that stretched, like an unwinding spool of thread._

"_What does he care if you're alive or not?" Abel asked his brother, his voice quiet. "Why send me after you?"_

"_Because he's full of pride, and hates the fact that I got away. He didn't want to send anyone out to kill me, so he figured I would come back if you asked. It has nothing to do with making peace with me. Levi doesn't know anything about forgiveness or compassion."_

"_He said he had a year to live," Abel replied, grasping at straws._

"_He's not sick, brother."_

"_How do you know? You didn't see him," Abel snapped. He got up and paced, going to the same window his brother had stood at. _

"_I know because one of his lackeys told me. He didn't send you here by himself. Trackers have been two steps behind you all this time, Abel. That's why I don't tell you where I live. I come and go when it's safe." He scratched his bristly chin. "And I caught one of those lackeys, and made him tell me why you were here."_

_Abel leaned his forehead against the cool window pane. Tiredly, he asked: "Where's he now?"_

"_Buried," Asher said remorselessly. "Naturally, Levi sent another in his place."_

"_What now?"_

"_Well, I'm not going back. Not while he's alive. So you being here is pointless."_

_Not pointless, Abel wanted to say. Rowan was here. She was his reason. If not Asher, then Rowan. _

"_If he found out about your girlfriend, he wouldn't like it," Asher said, but not unkindly._

_Abel's shoulders tensed. He couldn't care less what his father liked or not. "Too bad."_

_Asher chuckled. "Is it? What are you going to do? Live here?"_

"_I don't know," he said impatiently._

"_He won't let you," Asher pushed. "Levi probably already knows about her. Sooner or later, he'll give up his ruse, and come here on his own. And who're you going to choose then? Your dad or your girlfriend? That is, if he hasn't killed her-"_

"_Would you shut up!" Abel yelled. "Just shut up for two seconds!"_

_Asher took no umbrage, he merely shrugged, crossed his arms over his chest, propped his feet up on the coffee table. He had only been presenting some options to his brother, making sure that Abel knew this wasn't just a case of a few lies. Lives had been lost, betrayal was rife through their bloodlines. Nothing would ever be the same. _

"_I'll let you think about this," Asher said. "Sleep on it."_

"He's my father…and he lied to me," Abel went on, pain and anger melting together in a boiling pot. "He killed my mother, and blamed it on Asher. And I…I turned my back on him, too."

Rowan's heart hurt for him. She had listened in silence as he had spoken. The truth that Asher had laid before him was something that no one should ever have happen to them. But it had, to Asher and Abel, and both were caught up in a maelstrom of lies and deceit that had cost them the mother they loved. There were no words Rowan could say to make this better.

She scooched closer so they were thigh to thigh. One arm went caressed the back of his neck, the other held his hand as tightly as she could. And the dam broke. He laid his head on her thigh and let his tears fall. No stranger to comforting others, she wrapped him in her arms, and bent her head close to his, but said nothing.

It was original sin, as old as Adam and Eve. The sins of the father coming to harvest on his son's heart.

* * *

**I hope I'm not losing your interest yet. O_O**


	10. Midnight Mass

**X. Midnight Mass**

_Have you seen blood in the moonlight?  
__It appears quite black.  
-Hannibal Lecter_

It was seven-thirty in the evening on New Years Eve and people were just gathering in the Parry's mansion for the party. Last year's New Years party had been held at the Garwin estate, but the families switched off every year, except for at Caleb and Rowan's estate. Parties had been slim to none since William Danvers III had died. Kids from Spensers Academy and their parents were in attendance. The large common room was decked out with Christmas decorations and tables of food. The adults and younger people would eventually split off as the evening grew later.

"I wish Mom would have came," Rowan said to Caleb, disappoint evident in her tone.

It especially bothered her older brother because Rowan was usually accepting of their mom's absences, especially at large parties. But this year had been a damned hard one for his litter sister and he knew she had been hoping for more solidarity from their mother. Not evening Evelyn's youngest daughter almost dying could staunch the flow of alcoholic from the bottle to her lips. Kernels of irritation at his mom popped in his chest, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

"I know," he said, putting an arm around her.

The two of them were waiting in the large foyer in their semi-formal dress. Caleb in black slacks, blazer and white button-up shirt. Rowan was wearing a royal blue taffeta tea-length gathered dress with lace-up enclosure and matching flats. Her long hair was combed in an asymmetrical part, brushed to a sheen and tucked behind her ears. She had been given the green light to remove her leg brace by Doctor Peyton just a couple of days ago.

More people began pouring in. Hunter arrived with Gabriel, Tyler and the Simms made it; Reid and his parents were fashionably late. Pogue came out to the foyer to hang with his friends.

"Where's Abel?" Pogue asked.

"He said he'd be here," Rowan replied, looking anxiously out the window. She was momentarily distracted by Reid's tie, which was askew. She pursed her lips and straightened it. "You should stop tugging on it," she told him.

"I hate this thing," he complained.

She grinned. "Don't worry, once things get going you can take it off."

Reid was enjoying their closeness which was interrupted to Reid's chagrin.

"Look who I found!" Pinkie exclaimed as he walked through the double doors. He had his arm tucked in Abel's elbow who gamely didn't take offense at having been "found" by Pinkie.

"Hey, you have my date!" Rowan declared with mock fury.

"Speak of the devil," Reid muttered. Tyler glared at him in warning. Reid unconsciously tugged on his tie in agitation, though now it wasn't due to the tie itself.

Abel smiled and told Rowan how beautiful she looked before leaning down and kissing her. He was wearing black slacks, too, with a black button-up shirt and blazer.

"There you are!" Kate said, coming into the foyer. "I've been looking all over for you."

Pogue immediately felt like a putz. Kate had been talking to some girls from school and Pogue had wandered off. "Sorry, babe," he apologized and kissed her on the cheek. He had never been so head-over-heels with a chick before, but this Kate did something to him with those eyes of hers, and that smile, and her curvaceous figure… She was wearing a black strapless dress that hugged her breasts, pushing them up just a tad. The fabric ended mid thigh, and she wore those lethal strappy heels that Pogue could never fathom how females could wear.

The group split off into the main room for refreshments, wandering in and out of little groups. It was Caleb, Rowan, Abel, Gabriel, Hunter, and Pinkie who were in the middle of a laugh when Kira approached. The mirth instantly wound down in swift increments. None of them were particularly friendly with Kira. She and Rowan had been friends once upon a time, but when they started high school Kira had opted for popularity over friendship.

"Kira," Caleb said in way of greeting.

"Hi, Caleb," she said with a saccharine smile. She was almost arm to arm with him. Then her glittery eyes shifted to Abel. "We haven't been formally introduced," she said, holding out her hand. "Kira."

Abel was polite, and took it. "Abel."

Kira nodded. "It's so nice to see Rowan with a boyfriend."

Rowan hoped her wince wasn't too visible.

"Rowan and I are old friends," Kira went on, smiling at Rowan as if there wasn't a yawning gap between them.

"Ah," Abel said, his eyes flickering to Rowan. He had his arm around her shoulders, felt the tenseness of her muscles. He let his thumb stroke her shoulder in comfort, and she relaxed.

Pinkie rolled his eyes, not bothering to hide his contemptuousness of Kira's charade. "Peddle it somewhere else, sweetie," he said, shooing her off with a pert hand movement.

"You can't talk to her like that, fag." Aaron sauntered up, his voice low but filled with venom. He didn't want to call too much attention to their little group, there were still adults present.

"Fag?" Gabriel repeated, his eyes hard like black diamonds. "We don't use that word here, _p'tit boug_."

"What did you call me?" Aaron spat.

"Come on, Aaron," Caleb interjected with his let's-everybody-get-along-but-I'm-not-screwing-around tone, "not now."

"What trouble you making now, Abbot?" Reid sneered, shattering all prospects of a smooth retreat. He glared at Kira, too. The tension rose.

Rowan was feeling hemmed in, the air around her thick. _Not now, not now_, she pleaded. _Breathe, Rowan… _She was shutting out the ensuing argument, the ping-ponging of insults, until…

"Slut," Reid loosed.

"That's not what you were saying last month, Reid," Kira shot back.

Rowan felt like she'd been sucker-punched right in her gut. The group went silent; apparently it was just her who hadn't known about a certain hookup at a party last month.

"Um…I think I need air, Abel," she said somewhat queasily.

"Sure, yeah." Abel took her hand and led her out of the room. He got her jacket before they stepped outside in the large garden area. Even with the cold temperature the Parry's made sure that their mermaid fountain didn't freeze, and the trickling of the crystal clear water carried on the wind.

They sat on a stone bench for a bit in quiet before he asked her if she was okay.

"Yeah. It was just getting crowded there." She laughed half-heartedly. "I felt am anxiety attack coming on."

He nodded. Abel pressed her close to him, sharing his body warmth. As a werewolf who lived in Alaska, these cold temperatures did nothing to faze him. The jackets were just for show. Rowan had been damned good to him since he had told her everything Asher had revealed. She wasn't put off by his one bout of crying that afternoon; and she'd made him dinner afterwards. That same evening Asher told him he had some things to take care of and Abel had not seen him since. Now that he and his older brother had things out in the open, he wanted to introduce Asher to Rowan, but it looked like he was going to have to wait.

"So, is she always like that?" Abel asked with a wry smirk.

She huffed a laugh. "She didn't used to be. Kira used to be nice." Rowan stared off into the shadowed garden, sighed. "People just change, I guess."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm glad my brother doesn't fall for her crap though," Rowan went on. "But I know he wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole after how she treated me."

"Your brother's smart."

Rowan smiled. "He is, yeah."

"Reid not so much?" he inquired.

"Hmm." Rowan tucked herself closer into his side. "I didn't even think he liked her."

Abel kissed her on the top of her head. "I don't think he does. Just something guys do."

Rowan chuckled, tipped her head up to look at him. "She was hitting on you, too."

He smiled, leaned his head down so his forehead touched hers. "I'd never fall for her shit either."

"I'm glad for that," she said quietly.

And they segued into a sweet, long kiss. Rowan got as close as she could, her hands on his neck; Abel's hands around her waist.

"You always taste sweet," he voice was husky and warm against her lips.

Rowan smiled, and blushed in the moonlight. She pulled him in for another kiss, getting lost in him, her mind void of anything else but the warmth, and comfort she felt with him. The feeling of being solely wanted.

"Keeper…"

Rowan froze. The voice had broken through her serenity like a jagged icicle.

"Keeper…"

"What is it?" Abel asked, staring out into the night where she was. He felt something, danger.

"Did you hear it?" she whispered.

"No."

"Maybe only I can hear it when they call me," she murmured.

Abel wanted to ask her who, but seeing the look on her face, he knew he wouldn't get a response. Did it have something to do with that warlock who'd attacked her over a month ago? He hadn't gotten a clear answer on that, Hunter had suggested to him in advance that he not question Rowan too much about it, and Abel had respected that even though he hated not knowing why someone was out to kill the girl he loved.

_Whoa, there's that word again, man,_ he said to himself.

"Keeper…"

Rowan's face contorted into a mask of dread and fear. "He's out there." She stood up and began to walk out into the stygian garden.

"Rowan!" he called, but she didn't answer him. Abel didn't think twice about following her, he was next to her, almost near the woods on the Parry's property, when a dark figure emerged from a thick cluster of blackness. The robed figure was huge, at least six-six, and muscular.

Abel stepped in front of Rowan.

"No!" she said, trying to push him out of the way. "You can't, Abel."

"Do you know who this is?" he asked her, not taking his eyes off the statuesque ghoul.

"I am her end," the deep voice rose from the hood of the beige material.

"The fuck you are," Abel growled.

"_I call the light of golden rays/I seek protection thus, I pray/for heavenly forces at my side/angels, sages, spirits guide…"_

Abel didn't know much about magic, but Rowan was amassing her own now, and he could feel it as tangible as a hand running down his back. He didn't want to interrupt her; her eyes were open and staring straight at the warlock who meant to kill her, the warlock who had pulled his hood back and was moving his lips, forming some incantation of his own.

"…_or wolves who walk with cunning skill/Come to my aid/Come at my will/Black bird soaring, light my path/so I am victim to no one's wrath…"_

A halo of light formed around Rowan and massed together to form one orb of pure energy. She was breathing hard, like what she was doing was not necessarily beyond her skill, but beyond her strength. Abel was taut, his body wanting to change into his wolf form, but knowing he couldn't afford the few seconds to be distracted while Rowan was in her trance.

And then Rowan let loose her celestial sphere and hurled it at the warlock. He tried to dodge it by stepping to the side, thinking it was as easy as that, but the orb simply expanded and caught the warlock full frontal, and he went flying backwards in a roar of absolute fury. Rowan's knees buckled, but Abel caught her before she fell to the ground.

"He's getting up," she said. Rowan was doggedly making her way further into the pitch.

The warlock was groaning in pain, on all fours, shaking visibly from the force of power. His teeth were clenched, in both pain and rage, his dark eyes sparking red. He was bald, his skin a dark chocolate, reminding Abel of a fearsome African warrior of old.

"You wield too much power for your might, Keeper," he warned as he rose. "You weaken before me."

This time their magic met with a synonymous crash. Abel covered Rowan with his body, taking the brunt of force. Which was when Hunter, once again, appeared out of nowhere. There was something ethereal about him now, his Shepherds blood seasoned.

"Ah," the warlock breathed as if he were expecting him. And he ran at him, fast and swift, almost invisible in the night.

The adrenaline and violence in the air called to the wolf in Abel, and he gave in to it. His shirt ripped, and the pants became awkward, but Abel eschewed the garments like rags. He snapped his teeth, and howled.

Hunter took the man's weight, the two of them clashing chest to chest. The ensuing battle, because that's what it was, was something out of _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. _Hunter knew exactly what he was doing. He took hits but he gave them just as good, and it was obvious the warlock was impressed and enjoying the bloodshed.

"I will kill you," he seethed, "and then the Keeper."

The warlock used magic on Hunter, but the charm Rowan had made for him, that he never took off, blunted the efficacy of it. But it was some sort of paralytic blast and his limbs weighed a ton. He heard Rowan call out to him. He heard a vicious growl. Abel must have gone after the warlock.

He could barely lift his head. Rowan fell to her knees beside him, feeling the spell Hunter had been hit with. She took a breath and undid the weaving that she saw with her witch's eye. It was difficult. The marks of the spell were old and worked expertly. Little by little Hunter felt the weight lift; soon he was up on his feet.

"Stay here," he told her, seeing the pale of her skin.

Even slumped on the ground, the world titled. She had broken out into a cold sweat and her heart was thumping in her ears. She hoped she hadn't bruised any bones or gotten another concussion. The lament of her dismal hopes was put on the back burner by a shaft of light. The moonlight had hit something silver on the ground. Just five feet away was the warlock's dagger. Slowly, Rowan moved over and grabbed it. It was warm in her hands, like it had never touched the snow.

Rowan stood up, unsheathed the weapon, seeing her reflection, the blade as reflective as a mirror. She felt energy behind her and she turned, only to be met with the large warlock. He had a surprised expression on his face. He looked down and Rowan followed his dark gaze. The nine-inch blade was impaled in his gut to the hilt. Blood sieved out of the wound, onto her hand.

Rowan instantly felt the backlash of her violent action, as unintentional as it was.

"Rowan!" Gabriel yelled.

Warlock and witch were connected by the weapon.

"Let go of it!" Gabriel screamed.

The connection was broken when Abel took the warlock down by his massive weight of his animal form. His flews were flecked with blood, and he salivated heavily at the mouth. Hunter, his jade eyes molten and fierce, bent down and snapped the warlock's neck.

Abel had changed back and was trying to shake Rowan out of her stupor. She was looking at her hands now, viscous blood on her skin, black in the night. A hissing sound came from behind him; Gabriel had done something to dissolve the warlock's body. He pocketed the dagger.

A keening sound came from deep within Rowan.

"Rowan, look at me," Abel said, shaking her a little. "Look at me!"

"I…I'm sorry…" she said, voice quivering.

"We need to get her home," Hunter said.

Gabriel nodded. He did a little magic and re-clothed Abel, fixed up Hunter so he didn't look like he'd just been through a battle with a warlock/martial artist.

"Look what I did…" Rowan was muttering frantically under her breath. "Look what I did…"

"It's not your fault, Row," Hunter said.

Rowan was flanked by Abel and Hunter as they went around the side of the mansion to get to their cars. They had to go through part of the garden to get there, but as they approached it they heard arguing.

"You screwed up Reid!" Caleb was yelling.

"I didn't do anything!" Reid yelled back.

"That's bull! You used-"

"Nobody saw!" Reid spat back.

The three of them stepped into the light. Hunter said: "You guys…"

Caleb whipped around, Reid looked in their direction.

"Oh, shit," Abel said.

Their eyes were pitch black.

* * *

**Feedback is always welcome. Quite a few people have favorited and alerted this story, much appreciated. Gracias for the continued reading and kind reviews from those people. :D  
**


	11. Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

**XI. Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night**

_Do not go gentle  
__into that good night.__  
Rage, rage  
__against the dying of the light.  
-Dylan Thomas_

The days and nights after New Years were not easy for Rowan. The blood that had marred her hands stayed in her mind and heart and drowned her in a haze of depression and darkness. Only Gabriel, Hunter, and Abel knew the real reason why she could not get out of bed, stared blankly from under the covers, the reason she screamed at night. Caleb and the rest assumed it was because of the car accident, coming to prey on her with a vengeance. Rowan missed the first week of school after break, and by the second week she was at least getting out of bed. By the third week she was back at school albeit sluggishly, quiet, withdrawn. Deep down Rowan knew what had happened was not her fault, and that she had not even killed the warlock, but it was against her very nature, as Gabriel had once told Hunter, to commit such acts of violence, as unintentional as it might have been.

Now that Abel knew about the Covenant, he understood more of the burden Rowan was under. The prophecy of her becoming a Whitelighter, being responsible for the ties of her brothers, the history and future of the Covenant.

By the end of January Rowan was somewhat back to normal, as normal as could be expected.

----

Rowan observed the massive vehicle that idled in the driveway of her home. It was a black Hummer, the car that Tyler had gotten for his sixteenth birthday. She shook her head in bafflement.

"I don't get it, Ty," she said. "What the heck do you need with a monster truck?"

"It's a Hummer," he said.

Still, Rowan couldn't grasp it. She stood outside in jeans, Chucks, long-sleeved shirt, and knee-length sweater; her long hair tussled by the wind. Bruce Lee, Bubbe, and Ernie were all in their fleece vests. They were inspecting the car, too, traveling around it, sniffing and prodding. Tyler was keeping a stern on eye them, lest they try to mark it. Ernie and Bubbe had marked Caleb's car when he wasn't looking. And when Hunter and Pogue had gotten their motorcycles a couple of years back, Bubbe and Ernie had bestowed upon them the golden fountain as well.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Tyler yelled, seeing Ernie about to lift his leg. "Come here." He patted his thigh and Ernie, not a bit of regret on his face, walked over to Tyler so he could get a scratch behind the ears.

Hunter grabbed Bruce Lee before he could try to jump onto the car, and Rowan held Bubbe before she could try to spray one of the tires. The cat rubbed the top of her head under Rowan's chin, purring and meowing.

"One brother gets a clown car," Rowan muttered, "the other a monster truck. It's not as if you have a wife, a dog, and two-point-five kids to drive around."

"No, but he has all of us," Reid said, appraising the car which he had already driven a dozen times. Usually without baby boy's permission, not that it mattered.

"And an ample back seat just for you, Reid," Hunter quipped with a sly smirk, eliciting laughter at Reid's expense.

The blond waved off the comment with a trademark sneer. He was the only one without a vehicle of his own. Due to his joyriding the previous year, and the drinking, his parents had not bought him a car. It wasn't something he made a habit of. He just remembered being out of his mind with Rowan in a coma, guilt ridden and miserable, so he had stolen his dad's fully restored convertible without a by-your-leave. He regretted that now.

"When are your parents going to let you have a car?" Pogue asked him.

Reid shrugged. "It's been seven months, you'd think they'd be over it by now," he complained.

"Learned your lesson?" Caleb said.

"Boy scouts honor," Reid said, holding up the Vulcan salute.

"That's all wrong," Rowan told him.

Reid smiled his most innocent, no one bought it. Things were cleared up between Rowan and Reid. At the New Years party, when Kira had outed him, he had thought that Rowan would be royally pissed. His brothers had stopped him from going after her to set things straight. He and Kira had not hooked up. He had been a little under the influence at a party, and she had tried to fool around, but Reid hadn't bit. But naturally, tongues had wagged, and Reid had just hoped and prayed the false story wouldn't get to Rowan. Reid hated Kira; anybody who took up with Aaron Abbot had to have something severely wrong with them. Not to mention how Kira treated Rowan. The blond son did have standards.

And Rowan was the only person Reid couldn't stand having a low opinion of him, even for a second.

But he had other things to contemplate now. Like the fact that Abel knew about the Covenant, which had only served to bring him and Rowan closer together. And Abel had revealed a little something of himself – a freaking werewolf. Reid had had to bite his tongue to hold back all the gripes he had with that. Only Tyler had gotten the full rant.

"No," Reid continued, "they actually made a bargain with me." He shook his head. "If I get all A's and B's, I can have a car."

There was more laughter at his expense.

"You'll be bumming rides the rest of your life," Pogue joked.

When it started to sprinkle they headed inside. Evelyn Danvers was out, so they had the mansion to themselves. Rowan fed the kids lunch and went into her sanctum sanctorum, where she spent most of her free time. Abel had to work today, and then his brother needed to talk to him about something, so Rowan might not see him until tomorrow or later tonight. He had been good to her those weeks after New Years. The days she had stayed home from school he often came over to keep her company, and when she slept fitfully sometimes Abel had talked with her mom a bit. Evelyn told Rowan that she liked Abel, which made Rowan feel good.

Soft music played in the apothecary as Rowan sat behind the counter, mashing and mixing herbs, writing notes in the large blank book next to her. Gray light filtered in through the windows, and light drops of rain drip-dropped on the glass like angel's tears.

Reid came in and set a can of diet Coke on the counter, so deep in concentration was she that she hadn't even noticed his approach.

"Hey, Reid," she said. "Get tired of video games?"

He took a stool opposite her with his can of Coke and shrugged laconically. "What are you doing?"

"Concocting a potion that could make any body part shrivel on a human being," she replied breezily.

Reid looked at her blankly. "Seriously?"

Rowan laughed. "No."

He smiled. "You already have a potion for that."

"That's true. And it's fine the way it is." She popped the tab on the drink he'd brought her and took a sip. "Thanks."

He nodded and watched her work for a while. It always smelled nice in here, he often didn't know if the calm feelings that wafted around in here came from Rowan or the room itself. There were shelves filled with full and empty bottles in their cupboards. Little niches with rolled up herbs in brown paper. There was a sink behind Rowan; next to it was the door that led to the backyard.

"So, you going to concentrate on getting yourself a car?" she asked, small smile on her face. Her eyes glittered with interest and amusement from underneath her long eyelashes.

Reid snorted and rolled his eyes at the idea of it. "A's and B's? Yeah, right."

Rowan stopped what she was doing and set her forearms on the counter. "Come on, Reid, you're smart. You could if you wanted to."

His lips crooked with self-contempt dubiety. That's what his parents told him, only Rowan made it sound better because it came from her. It almost sounded true coming from her lips.

"I'll help you," she offered.

"Nah," he said. "You're busy."

She drummed her purple-painted fingernails on the wood. "I'm never too busy for you. You know that."

"Hmm…I don't know," he vacillated, mischief slowly creeping on his face.

She sighed softly. "You're feeling neglected, aren't you?"

"No!" he denied, perhaps a bit to strongly.

"Reid." Rowan said his name in that all-knowing way of hers.

He grunted. "Maybe a little."

She laughed. Straight from her diaphragm. It had been so long since Reid had heard it that he laughed, too, even though he had just basically told her he felt left out because she had a boyfriend in her life. Nothing could have sounded more pathetic, but he knew Rowan wouldn't hold it against him.

She reached across the counter and put her hands on his. "We're going to get you a car," she told him with absolute certainty.

He snorted. "You have way too much faith in my ability for school."

"And you don't have enough." Her gentle brown eyes touched his blue ones in a way that made him feel like he could do anything. Even get A's and B's. "But promise me one thing, okay?"

He looked suspicious, but said: "Ok…"

"Promise me that you will never, ever drive if you've been drinking. Even if it's one cup of beer."

Reid preferred to keep his promises or not make them at all. He knew she knew that while she'd been in a coma he'd gone drinking and driving, but had never said anything to him about it. He still felt incredibly stupid for having done so.

"Yeah, okay, I can do that Row," he finally said.

"Don't promise me if you're not sure, Reid."

He gripped her hands. Smaller than his, softer. "I promise, Rowan."

A relieved smile spread on her lips. "Good. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to one of you guys."

----

"I'm not leaving," Abel told his brother stubbornly.

Asher ground his teeth together, struggling to hold his temper intact. "You don't get it, pretty soon he's going to give up his charade and come here himself."

He shook his head. "You don't know that."

Asher had told him that a new werewolf was in town. Since he had been here the elder brother had taken care of two, only one of them giving up information before they died. Now Levi Marrok was getting anxious back up in Alaska, apparently his supposed illness was improving, and he wanted his one and only son to return home. But how could Abel go back to Alaska and his dad knowing what he had done? How could he leave Rowan?

"I do, Abel," Asher insisted. "It's dangerous for her too if you stay."

"Leave Rowan out of this!" Abel growled.

"I'm not using her as leverage to get you to leave. I'm serious. Levi will try to get to her."

"What would he have to gain from that?"

"His pride blinds him," Asher said, "it always has. He wouldn't even stop to think about what an important person she is to her family and this community. Everyone in this small town is familiar with her name. And do you think her brothers would let her death go unavenged?" He shook his head. "Levi wouldn't think about any of that. That's why he's so dangerous."

Abel's mind was in shambles. Could staying in Ipswich be that hazardous to Rowan's safety? Would his dad really hurt her? Asher hadn't been wrong about Levi so far, and the last thing Abel wanted was for something to happen to Rowan. He loved her. He knew that. There wasn't any denying it now.

"Ah, bro," Asher sighed with both pity and sympathy. He sat down on the couch with his younger brother. "You fell in love with her, didn't you?"

"So what if I have?" he returned with some asperity.

Asher shrugged. "I know how it is."

Abel snorted dubiously and glared at his brother. "Do you?"

"Oh, yeah." He leaned his head back. "Remember Amelia Carlyle?"

Abel nodded. "She's still there."

Asher's eyes had gone dark, and his face was hard. "Yeah, me and her…"

"Seriously?"

He smirked. "Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Levi Marrok happened," he told him bitterly. "He went to Amelia's father and told him I was half human. Her dad forbid her to see me again."

"Did he tell her about you?"

Asher nodded. "But she didn't care. Her dad said that if she didn't stop seeing me they would move away. So she did, because to her, seeing me from afar was better than not seeing me at all." He chuckled deep in his chest. "I think there was some logic in that. Seeing her, even though I couldn't be with her, was bittersweet."

Abel had had no idea. It was actually kind of hard to imagine his brother so in love. Like the way that he loved Rowan. Abel wasn't sure if he could be around Rowan and not be able to touch her or talk to her. If even a smile was forbidden, a glance. Could he do that? Or would being far away be better?

"Did you get to say goodbye?" Abel asked.

Asher didn't answer at first. "I went to her before I went to see you that night. She said she knew I was innocent."

Abel winced. Amelia had believed him, but he, Abel, Asher's own brother, had turned him away.

"She wanted to come with me," Asher went on. "But it was too dangerous then. I couldn't risk her." He turned to his brother. "You see?"

Abel saw, but he didn't want to. No matter how tightly he shut his eyes he couldn't shut out the dark truth of his brother's words. He still didn't know if he had the strength to say goodbye to Rowan. But putting her life in jeopardy, when she already had so much to contend with, how fair would that be to her?

Just then, wells of tumultuous anger roared inside of him. His father had already taken too much from him. His mother, his brother, his home, and now Rowan. But Rowan wasn't taken yet, Abel would fight it. He would stay as long as he could. Running had never been his style, giving up on something he loved, never. He had faltered in that way once with Asher, he wouldn't do it again.

"Sometimes you have to let go of something to save it," Asher said.

"What fortune cookie did you pull that out of?" Abel snapped.

Asher chuckled. "Actually, I was reading one of your girlfriend's articles for her school newspaper."

"Animal Row," Abel said, the name of Rowan's monthly newspaper article that she'd begun as a freshman.

"Yeah. It was something about puppy mills, and how even though you wanted to buy the puppies you see in pet stores, buying them would only reward the mills with monetary gain and the means to continue their acts of cruelty. And as much as it hurt or seemed unfair, you had to let go of the puppies in the pet store to save future dogs from an equally miserable life." He scratched her chin. "It was a really good piece."

Abel half-smiled. "Yeah."

"Does she know it's unnatural for a girl her age to make so much sense?" Asher inquired.

"Maybe you could ask her yourself if you ever met her," Abel sniped. He still didn't know why Asher avoided meeting Rowan. "You'd like her," he said in a kinder tone.

"It's not about that," Asher said. He knew he would like Rowan Danvers. And he didn't want to get to know someone and then have them turn into a lingering memory. Even if it was his little brother's girlfriend. "It's nothing against her."

Abel checked the time. It was seven-thirty, not too late to go see Rowan.

"Got a date?" Asher asked.

"No date. Just hanging out."

"Are you going to tell her?" he asked.

Abel was silent. Tell Rowan that he might have to leave? He didn't even know when, and he wasn't going anywhere unless he absolutely had to.

"You could leave her note," Asher suggested.

Abel sneered at his brother. "I wouldn't do that to her."

Asher smirked. "Yeah, I know." What else could he say to make his brother understand that his being here was not safe, for him or for Rowan? Asher knew that in the end Abel would make the right decision. Despite all his hemming and hawing, Asher did not relish the idea of his brother in pain. He knew all too well the agony of leaving behind the girl you loved.


	12. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

A/N: Just a warning, some sexual content in this chapter near the end.

**XII. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy**

_All the fear has left me now  
I'm not frightened anymore  
It's my heart that pounds beneath my flesh  
It's my mouth that pushes out this breath  
And if I shed a tear I won't cage it  
and if I feel a rage I won't deny it  
__I won't fear love  
-Sarah McLachlan_

Rowan took a deep breath before she turned around to face the mirror. This was definitely the most borderline-sexy dress she'd ever worn. It was the night of the spring dance at Spensers and Abel was taking her. She hadn't gone to any of the dances this year so she was pretty nervous. Rowan opened her eyes and the reflection showed a girl in a knee-length black dress with thin straps, and a v-neck line that revealed just a smidgen of cleavage, the beaded detail under the bust accentuated her breasts, not overly large to begin with; but Rowan had never complained. The dress hugged her curves and overall Rowan felt good. Her long wavy hair matched the dress; it was parted asymmetrically, hanging down her back. Silver moonstone spiral earrings adorned her ears, and a bracelet that held moon stones in silver carvings interlocked with silver hoops.

Pulling herself away from the mirror now, before she could find something wrong with her outfit, she bent down and grabbed her black two inch heels that had those fake buckles on top for design.

Everyone else was probably ready and downstairs. Dizzy had been sitting in her room silently. Dizzy was not really dizzy so much. Last month a friend from California had sent her a video message of her boyfriend having sex with another girl. It had been during class when Maria had opened it, and she'd gone postal. Maria had thrown away the promise ring her ex-boyfriend David had given her the Christmas before last.

"Ready?" Dizzy asked. She was wearing a strapless red dress with fierce heels, and her long hair coiled up on her head. Not even being cheated on was going to stop Dizzy from looking her best.

Rowan nodded. "You okay? We don't have to go."

Dizzy breathed in, showing her tranquility. "No. I am going to go to this dance and have a good time."

The two friends walked down the long flight of stairs in the Danvers mansion. When they entered the sitting room the guys went quiet. Dizzy they were used to seeing dolled up like this, but Rowan…

"Wow," Abel said.

Rowan blushed.

Caleb opened his mouth to speak, about to comment on the tad bit of skin his little sister was showing, but Pinkie poked him in his ribs and said: "Not a word, hot stuff, unless it's something good."

Reid whistled. "Aren't we lucky to be walking into the dance with two sexy ladies?" But his blue eyes were mainly focused on Rowan._  
_

Caleb glared daggers at Reid.

"Ah, lil bit…" Pogue pointed out, but he got a sharp finger in his ribs too.

"It's all right," Hunter said, putting his arms around the two girls. "We'll fight off any guys who make untoward advances."

"Good," Dizzy said contemptuously. "Because I hate guys."

The group shared a laugh, Tyler did too though not without a wince to go with it. He'd been crushing on Maria since freshman year, but this wasn't how he'd wanted to go about asking her out. Having her boyfriend cheat on her had made her a bit cynical on the male sex. Not that he could blame her. Reid and told him to move in while Maria needed a shoulder to cry on, but Tyler wasn't as fast-moving as his blond friend, or as inclined to take advantage of a broken heart.

Leaving the house, they all clambered into Tyler's Hummer, except for Rowan and Abel who took his truck. Her heart was beating rapidly, though oddly not from the car ride this time. She felt exposed, but in a good way.

"You look beautiful, Rowan," he said. Damn, did she ever. He was fighting to keep his eyes off of her chest and roaming down her body.

"Thanks," she said. "You look really good, too." Abel was wearing a black tux. "You always do."

He smiled at her, only taking his eyes off the road for a moment, but it was enough to take her breath away, that one glance that heated her blood and sent zings of pleasure down her spine. Was this normal? When she and Hunter had been dating, he had always made her feel pretty and appreciated, too, hardly giving any other girls the time of day, completely focused on her. There was a time when Rowan had thought Hunter would be her first, trusting him utterly with her body and heart, and she still did, trusted Hunter without question. When she and Hunter had "broken up" (it seemed so trite to put it that way because she and Hunter were closer than ever now that they didn't have that secret between them) Rowan thought that she would never feel that way about guy again. That level of comfort, trust, and love was rare, and even rarer to be reciprocated.

"What's that look on your face?" Abel asked softly.

Rowan worried her bottom lip, hesitant to answer. "I was just thinking that…I'm lucky to have you feel the same way about me as I feel about you." She blushed in the dark cab of the truck. "That's corny, I know. Sorry."

Those words hit him like a welcome freight train that held everything he had ever wanted, leaving him short of breath. "Don't be," he told her. "I'm the lucky one," he said, reaching over to take her hand.

They sat in contented silence all the way to Spensers. The rest of the gang was right ahead of them and they pulled in the parking lot at the same time. Abel helped her down from the truck, the two of them still rocked by the admissions they had made. Students were loitering outside, meeting up with friends or their dates. Kate spotted Pogue the second he stepped out of the Hummer.

"Hey, baby," she said, giving him a kiss.

Pogue smiled. "You look great," he said, holding her arms length away with his hands on her hips.

"Thank you," she replied, beaming.

Caleb's date, Beth, was waiting by the door wearing a one-shoulder green dress. She lit up when she saw Caleb in his tux, and waved somewhat eagerly.

"Oh, good luck with that," Reid said with a smirk.

"Be nice, Reid," Rowan admonished. "Where's your date?"

"I went stag tonight," he said. Reid wasn't able to single out one girl he wanted to ask to the dance. He was a little bored with the selection.

"Because he's already gone through all of them," Pinkie quipped, only blowing a kiss at Reid when the blond sneered at him.

The dance hall was decorated from floor to ceiling with bright crepe paper and balloons. One wall was lined with refreshments and on the perimeter were circular tables with white table-cloths. Everybody's head turned when the Sons of Ipswich entered, it was weird in its collective, awed reaction, but the four of them were used to it by now that they didn't notice.

Kate, however, did, and she liked the attention, knowing she was on the arm of one of the Sons of Ipswich. Beth was a little daunted, not to mention the looks of envy some girls shot her, like they would gladly throw her off of a cliff to be in her place, gave her the creeps.

Rowan leaned in a little and said, "It's okay, they're just plastic."

Beth smiled at the encouragement. Caleb looked at his sister gratefully. He was glad that Beth seemed to like Rowan, genuinely, not like Allison from last year. Since then, Caleb was more careful about who he dated.

They decided to sit down first. Reid somewhat blatantly made sure Tyler got a seat next to Dizzy, while the blond took the seat on the other side of her, putting his arm around the back of her chair.

"Do you want anything?" Abel asked Rowan, gesturing towards the refreshment table.

"Hmm, not now," she said.

"Ugh," Reid complained, "the room just got rotten."

They followed his damning gaze to the double doors. Aaron and Kira had entered, along with Brody and some other undesirables.

"Let it go," Caleb said. "Maybe we can get through the night without violence."

"That's entirely up to him," the blond said. "He starts it." And as if Aaron knew he was being talked about his eyes alighted on their table, a curl of both amusement and disdain marring his lips.

Rowan snapped her fingers in front of his face, and Reid's baleful stare was broken. "What?" he asked, startled.

"Nothing," she replied innocently.

"Is Gabriel coming?" Pinkie asked Hunter, a gleam in his eyes. Pinkie was wearing a light gray tuxedo with a neon pink vest (and Chucks), with a neon green bowtie. Definitely the most festive at the table.

"Oh, he's trying to steal your man," Reid said.

"He's not my man," Hunter said.

Pogue pursed his lips to keep from smiling. Since he and Hunter shared an apartment, he knew that Gabriel paid his roomie late-night visits.

"Pinkie," Kate said, "I have a question for you."

He smiled. "Yes, dear?"

"If you could date one guy at this table, who would it be?"

The guys went quiet, oddly uncomfortable, while Dizzy, Beth, and Rowan grinned. Pinkie took his time looking at each of the guys, enjoying their discomfiture. Hunter was the only one not put off by it. He already knew he wasn't Pinkie's type.

"Hmm…" Pinkie mused. "Well, I would have to say…" He sighed theatrically. "It's just so difficult!" he exclaimed with an I-give-up gesture of his hands before putting them under his chin.

"Ah, come on," Kate pushed, "you've thought about it."

"It's okay, Pinks," Rowan chimed in, "you can keep it a secret."

"Please do," Reid uttered.

"Don't worry, blondie, it's not you," Pinkie said dismissively.

They laughed, then laughed more at Reid's put-out expression. "What's wrong with me?" he asked, offended.

Pinkie laughed.

Reid looked all around the table. "Seriously, what's wrong with me?"

Pinkie rolled his eyes. "I don't go for blonds, that's all."

"You have something against blonds now?" Reid shot back.

"You just can't imagine someone not fawning over you, can you?" Tyler asked, suppressing more laughs.

"Poor, Reid," Dizzy commiserated.

"I'm getting a drink," he said acerbically, pushing his chair back forcefully. He ignored all the female stares he was garnering as he mazed his way through the crowd.

Abel asked Rowan for a dance and they headed out onto the middle of the floor. They moved well together, knowing one another's steps before it was taken. Eventually the entire table was abandoned for the music. Reid stood sipping punch in the shadows, not wanting to be approached. He didn't know what this funk he was in lately. His grades were good so his parents were off of his back. He and Rowan had been studying almost everyday after school for a couple of hours, and if he kept it up he'd get his car at the end of the semester.

Reid always looked forward to those study sessions, only because they were with Rowan. He laughed more with her, was more contented, at ease. And seeing her dancing with Abel made the punch curdle in his stomach. And there wasn't even a girl to distract him because Reid was pretty sure he had come to the point where he didn't want another girl, even for fun. He just wanted Rowan, and she had someone else.

_Christ, your step into maturity couldn't have come at a worse time, idiot,_ Reid castigated himself. _This epiphany couldn't have happened when she was single?_

The punch tasted bitter now. He left it on an unoccupied table and left the dance hall to get some air. The halls of Spensers Academy were always gloomy at night, sometimes even during the day. It was an old school, and the corridors whispered, as Rowan would say. But right now the only whispers he heard were the ones in his head telling him what a moron he was.

----

Rowan told Abel she needed to use the restroom and left him sitting at their table with Dizzy, Pinkie, and Tyler. Her heels clacked loudly in the empty halls. If she disliked the school during the day, she disliked it even more so at night. She was glad she didn't dorm here. Rowan entered the large girls' bathroom and thankfully it was empty. The last thing she wanted to hear was the catty gossip of…

The door swung open and two voices, one of which she really didn't need to hear, sounded high-pitched laughter, likely at someone's expense. Great, Rowan thought, she could stay here in the stall and listen until they were finished, or she could exit and face the music. But Rowan didn't think she could take an encounter, she didn't want anything to ruin her night.

"Did you see what she was wearing?" Kira remarked. "What a slut."

"Oh, I know," Amanda agreed.

Through the slit in the bathroom door she saw them digging in their purses for make up appliances.

_Get out while you can, Rowan,_ she said. She took a breath, flushed the toilet and exited the stall. The girls went stone still when they saw her. Rowan kept her composure and washed her hands.

"You look pretty tonight, Rowan," Kira said sweetly.

"Thanks," Rowan replied. She dried her hands hurriedly and left the bathroom, hearing more high-pitched laughter, not realizing until she got to the end of the dark hall that she was holding her breath.

"Are you okay?"

Rowan jumped, having not felt the cold breeze that always preceded Toby, or any ghost for that matter. She smiled. "Yeah."

He tipped his head to the side. Toby was a fourteen year old ghost who had had been murdered in the forties by two students with a thing against Jews. Toby had still been alive, albeit semi-conscious, when they'd stuffed his body in a trunk and sunk it to the bottom of the lake. For all that, he was the most benevolent ghost Rowan had ever met. He was about her height with brown hair and brown eyes. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and the old-fashioned Spensers uniform.

"Are you having fun?" he asked.

"I am, actually."

Toby smiled. "Good. You hardly ever have fun anymore, Rowan."

Rowan shrugged. "Been a crazy year."

He nodded. "Reid is out there," – he pointed down another hall that led to one of Spensers' gazebos – "he looks down."

Rowan was instantly concerned. He had seemed okay earlier. She hoped he hadn't had a run-in with Aaron or anything, which was enough to put Reid in a funk for hours depending on the level of hostility the encounter had. Rowan walked with Toby to the mini-quad, the ghost stopped at the door, acting as a sentry. Rowan could see Reid's blond head in the dim lights that were hung up in the climbing plants that coiled around the columns of the gazebo.

Reid heard footsteps and turned around, initially annoyed at being bothered, but when he saw Rowan he smiled.

"Toby said you looked like something was bothering you," Rowan said, sitting down next to him.

"What a nosy ghost," Reid commented, stretching his arms across the back of the bench. "Don't the dead have anything better to do than interfere in the lives of the living?"

She laughed a little. "He was just worried," Rowan said.

The breeze ruffled her hair, sending strands whispering across her silky skin. Reid was gazing at her intently, so lost in her that he didn't even notice he was drinking her in.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rowan asked self-consciously, a wary half-grin on her face.

He had to shake himself a little to come out of his stupor. He smiled. "I can't look at you? You're beautiful."

Rowan blushed and looked away. "Well, I can see you're back to your normal self." She stood up and pressed down her dress. "You sure you're okay? I can stay out here with you for a little while."

He was tempted to say yeah, stay out here with me all night, and tomorrow, don't go back to Abel, because I love you more than he ever will. "No, I'm cool. Go have fun, Row." Reid hoped she didn't hear the wistfulness in his voice. But he knew he wasn't fooling her because she was looking at him in that way with her eyes so intent and knowing.

"You'll tell me what's wrong later," she said. Rowan bent and gave him a kiss on the forehead, giving his hair a playful tussle for good measure.

Reid pretended he was angry and waved her off. He watched her walk away, graceful in her gait, wondering what the hell he was going to do. Reid sighed heavily and it carried on the wind.

----

Abel and Rowan had snuck off early. It was ten-thirty and they were in his truck going back to his place. Away from the loud music, away from the crowd, to be alone. The two of them. Ipswich was kind of like the town that feared sundown, the shops closed like dominoes falling, leaving the streetlamps to provide illumination. Abel pulled up in his regular parking space, but before he could open the door a heavy rain fell, sheeting in thick torrents.

"Hell," he said.

He took off his jacket and gave it to Rowan to use as an umbrella. They both got out of the car and ran to the steps that led up to his apartment. Abel was worried about her stressing her bones, so he scooped her up and ran the rest of the way with a protesting girlfriend in his arms. By the time they were in his apartment they were soaked.

Abel turned on the radiator, the clinking of the contraption filling the apartment as it came to life. He turned on the lamps, locked the door.

"Let me get you something," he said. "I don't want you to catch a chill." He opened the closet and got out a sweatshirt. "There are towels in the bathroom."

She thanked him and went into the bathroom to change, slipping out of her damp dress. She pulled his sweater over her head and let it fall down her body where it stopped at the knees. Rowan rolled up the sleeves twice, then wrung her hair out, squeezed it between the towel to get as much of the moisture out as she could. When she was finished she came out of the bathroom with her dress in hand. She placed it on the doorknob, took her jewelry off and put it in her purse.

Aware of her bare breasts touching the fabric of his sweater she felt a little self-conscious. She walked into the kitchen where he was making her tea. He turned around when he heard her soft steps.

Abel smiled. "You look better in my clothes than I do," he said.

Rowan was somewhat speechless. He was wearing black sweatpants and nothing else. She wasn't a stranger to seeing guys without their shirts, she grew up around them, but that didn't mean she didn't enjoy the view right now. Abel had an olive complexion, toned abs…toned everything. His hair was damp and tucked behind his ears, like hers. When the tea was done they relaxed on his fold-out couch, listening to the rain beat against the windows. Rowan was tucked under his arm and Abel was idly curling a lock of her hair around his finger.

It was only inevitable that they would find themselves cuddling and kissing, legs twined around the others. Abel was almost afraid to crush her, she was so much smaller and delicate than he, but the more he kissed her, the harder it was for him to hold back. His body covered her as he supported himself on his forearms. Rowan ran her hands down his undulating back, and she could have sworn she heard a purr come from deep within his throat. He wasn't wearing a belt, just a pair of cotton sweats, so she knew what she was feeling against her thigh wasn't a buckle.

Rowan had to come up for air.

"Sorry," Abel apologized, thinking he was pushing her too far, too fast.

"No, it's okay," she assured him. She licked her lips. Her hands were resting on his broad shoulders. Rowan stared up at him, his pupils were dilated, his lips as swollen with kisses as hers.

"You know I love you, right?" he asked softly, not able to keep it locked inside anymore.

Rowan startled at his words.

Her silence made it occur to him that she might think he was saying that to get her to have sex with him, and he silently cursed himself for picking the wrong time.

She smiled softly. "I love you, too."

His warm forehead came to rest lightly on hers. Abel said it again and kissed her, fueled the fires, his blood running through his veins as tumultuous as the rain fell from the sky. Slowly, Abel ran his hand up one smooth thigh, up higher until he felt…scar tissue. He opened his eyes and Rowan was staring at him, frightened, worried.

"From the car accident," she said.

Abel lifted up the sweater higher until her entire torso was exposed. He touched the scars with his finger, trying to imagine the pain and fear she must have endured during that time.

"They're ugly, I know."

"Not ugly," he told her firmly. "No part of you is ugly." His head bent down slowly, letting Rowan know what he was going to do. His lips kissed her scars, each of them, the dead tissue almost feeling alive from the pleasure of it. He didn't want to leave one part of her untouched.

Abel kissed his way up, slowly, his bristly chin tickling her flesh. The sweater came up over her breasts, and he kissed one, then the other. Rowan gasped sharply at the sensation. The way his hands caressed her, the way his hips ground into hers. Rowan yearned like he yearned. Their lips met again in a heated frenzy of want, need. With a mind of their own, her legs wrapped themselves around his waist, pulling him closer. Abel groaned (or growled?) deep in his throat.

Was this what she heard girls going on about at school? she wondered. Why everyone was so obsessed with sex that they would hop into bed with someone they didn't even particularly like? Rowan had never expected her first time to be met with fireworks or anything, she was realistic about it, but she had always wanted it to be with someone she cared about, and who cared about her. She didn't think that was too much to ask. It wasn't a naïve hope.

Somewhere the sweater had come completely off, leaving her only in her panties. Her breasts pressed against his hard chest, but she wanted closer, more.

"Oh…" he moaned. "Damn it…"

Abel had to knock himself out of it. He couldn't risk her like this.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" she asked, short of breath.

He chuckled hoarsely. "I don't have anything, Rowan."

It took one second, then it clicked. "Oh…"

Abel was quivering with wanting her so much. "I won't risk you."

Rowan wanted to tell him the hell with risk, they were here, together, now. But that voice in the back of her mind knew that it wouldn't be smart to make love without a condom. His brother Asher was proof that breeding did occur between werewolf and human. Rowan was flushed. Her hand trailed down his chest, further down, past the band of his sweats. Definitely the boldest act she had ever committed.

Abel's back bowed, and his growl was low and deep. He kissed her, while her soft, dainty hand caressed him from base to tip. They worked in rhythm, as one. Carefully, his hand found its way past the lacy elastic of her panties. Another sharp gasp came from her throat when he touched her.

"Has anyone ever…?"

She shook her head fervently, rocked to bits by the sensation. She was still holding him, stroking. Like the rest of Abel, he was big and solid. Her legs felt like jelly, and what he was doing with his fingers made her feel like she was falling through a bed of marshmallows. The heat expanded around them, so connected were they now they wouldn't know where one began and the other ended. Their ecstasy rose, and peaked. They shook and collided against one another's body as the pressure released. They held onto every last bit of it until they floated back down to Earth.

* * *

**All right, I'd definitely like to know what you think with this chapter. Odd, I've written a lot of sex scenes in my fanfics, but this one was difficult for some reason. Maybe because it was between two young teenagers, and I'm not entirely sure of who's reading this. LOL.**


	13. The Reaping

**XIII. The Reaping**

_All sins__ cast long shadows.  
-Irish Proverb_

The couple woke to a pounding on the door. Warm and wrapped in one another they ignored it thinking it was thunder, but when the pounding came back with a vengeance, rapid and insistent, they woke up.

"That better not be my brother," Abel muttered, getting out of bed. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes; finger combed his hair and answered the door. He got his wish. It wasn't his brother, it was Rowan's.

Caleb stood outside, his face stern, or just plain pissed off. He looked Abel up and down. The guy was only wearing a pair of sweats that rode low on his hips.

"My sister's here," Caleb said. A statement. Not a question.

"Caleb?" Rowan appeared behind Abel wearing an oversized sweater.

Her big brother took a deep breath and reigned in his temper. He did not even want to think about what had been going on. "Get dressed," he ordered. "I'm taking you home."

"It's eight in the morning," Rowan said.

"Exactly," he snapped. "Do what I said."

"Don't be mad at her," Abel said. "I'll take her home."

Caleb ignored him. "Don't just stand there Rowan. Get dressed. Now."

"Don't snap at me. I'll come home when I'm ready. You can't just come here and order me around!"

"I'm your brother, and I told you-"

"Abel said he would take me home," Rowan cut in. "I'm not getting in the car with you if you're mad."

Abel was the epitome of calm. He stepped a little to the side, blocking Rowan from Caleb's sight. "I'll bring her home, all right?"

Caleb's jaw was clenched. "I want her home in a half-hour." Then he said a little bit louder, so his sister would know this was for her: "I mean it, Rowan. A half-hour." He spun on his heel and descended the steps.

Abel shut the door and turned to Rowan.

"The…nerve!" Rowan sputtered. "As if he's never gotten in late or anything!" She threw her hands up in frustration.

Abel smiled. "He's just being the older brother." He pulled her close to him and gave out a grumbly sigh. Abel kissed her, long and sweet. "Good morning."

Rowan smiled. "Morning." She buried her head in his chest. "Hmm, you're warm." She couldn't resist. She pulled him down for another kiss and they somehow made it back to the fold-out couch. Rowan fell on top of him with a giggle, but didn't break the kiss.

Abel held her tight to him, hands possessed with a mind of their own as they roamed up her thighs, over her butt, up the smooth expanse of her back, save for the scar which he favored with a slow caress. He was going down the road he had been the previous night and he knew he had to pull away.

"Temptress," he growled. "I'm strong, but not that strong."

Rowan laughed. "Sorry. I just feel comfortable with you."

His large hands stroked her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Good."

Rowan took her time getting ready. Her dress was dry, so she put that back on and pulled Abel's sweater over it. She finger-combed her hair, put her shoes on, and they were ready to go. He wore jeans, t-shirt, and his bomber jacket. They held hands during the ride back to her house. The sky was amazingly blue this morning despite the previous night's downpour. Rowan's heart sunk a little as they drove up her long driveway. She didn't want this to end.

Abel shut off the engine. "Should I come in with you?"

"Nah," she replied. "He wants to lecture me by himself."

"Don't be too hard on him," he said. "I bet he never had to worry about this when you were with Hunter, huh? Caleb's a first-timer here."

Rowan laughed. "Ok."

"Come here." Abel put a sure hand behind her neck, gentle, and gave her a deep kiss. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

A few more kisses and Rowan jumped out of the car. She walked up the steps to the double-doors, turned and waved. Abel waved back, and didn't drive away until she was safe inside.

Rowan shut the door behind her, basking in her contentedness before facing a wrathful older brother. Caleb was sitting on the grand steps, waiting, but stood up once he saw her. His anger had not dissipated since she'd seen him twenty-eight minutes earlier.

Bubbe, Ernie, and Bruce Lee came and greeted her. She bent down, and petted them all, ignoring her brother.

Caleb cleared his throat.

She sighed and stood up. "You said a half-hour. I'm two minutes early."

Caleb wasn't amused. "I called you seven times last night, Rowan."

Rowan pulled out her cell phone, which had been switched on vibrate. Ah, yes, seven missed calls. "Oh. I told Hunter that Abel and I were leaving early. I know he told you."

"That's not the point," Caleb retorted. "What the hell did you think you were doing staying overnight at his place?"

Rowan took a second to answer. "Are you mad because I didn't answer your calls, or because I stayed overnight?" Before he could answer, she said: "What time did you notice I still wasn't home, because if it had been three or four in the morning, you would have been at Abel's at three or four in the morning, pounding on the door like you were born in a barn."

Caleb's face turned red. "You don't get to question me, Rowan."

She snorted. "Why not? Have I ever lectured you when you stayed out late?"

Caleb was shaking his head; eyes shut tight, lips pursed in frustration. "You are too young to-"

"Have sex?" Rowan interjected, and her brother winced at the word.

"I was going to say," Caleb said between clenched teeth, "that you're too young to stay out that late, by yourself, with a guy."

"Oh, please, Caleb. You had sex with Allison when you were my age," Rowan tossed at him. "Which wasn't that long ago, by the way."

His eyes nearly bugged out.

"You forget what school we go to, big brother," she told him dryly. "Unfortunately, I have to hear about your guys' exploits, it eventually finds my ears." Rowan started to walk past him and up the stairs, but he stopped her by grabbing onto her elbow.

"I'm not finished, Rowan," he said.

"What more can you say without making yourself into a bigger hypocrite?" she asked him.

Caleb was silent. He let go of her elbow. He sat down on the steps. Bubbe and Ernie followed Rowan, but Bruce Lee sat next to him. Caleb rested his chin on his fists, and glared peripherally at the ferret.

"Am I a hypocrite?" he asked the animal.

Bruce Lee made a noise and hopped on Caleb's knee, the tiny bell around his neck made a tinkling noise as it moved. The human pet the ferret and Bruce Lee made "dooking" noises, as Rowan referred to them. They were usually loud, but these ones were low-key which Caleb appreciated. He let Bruce Lee settle on his shoulder and Caleb went into the kitchen to make some coffee. The ferret's tail was spastic this morning and was brushing all over the back of his neck, and his nose was pestering his ear.

"Hey, hey," Caleb admonished. "You keep doing that and you're riding on the ground."

Bruce Lee ceased. If you lived around Rowan long enough, you started talking to animals like they were people too. Sometimes they even listened, like Bruce Lee here, who was learning indoor etiquette at a good pace. Caleb wished he would stop pilfering his socks though.

When the coffee was done he poured two cups; cream and a pack of Equal in one; cream and real sugar in the other. He took them upstairs. Rowan's door was partially open. She was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, but she had Abel's sweater in her hands. She put her face to it and inhaled, a completely happy expression on her face. Caleb felt badly for coming down so hard on her.

He cleared his throat to announce his presence. "Peace offering," he said.

Rowan put the sweater on her bed and took one of the mugs from her brother. "Ok."

"That's it? Okay?" Bruce Lee jumped off of his shoulder and onto the bed to join the other two animals.

Rowan shrugged. "Abel told me to go easy on you." She sat down on her bed, and Caleb pulled up a chair.

"Even after I nearly broke down his door?"

She smiled. "He said it was a big brother thing."

Caleb chuckled. "Yeah. Well…" He looked down into his cup as if there would be the words he needed. "Listen, Rowan…"

"We didn't have sex, Caleb," she said bluntly, letting him off the hook.

Caleb winced, but was secretly relieved.

"It started to rain when we got out of the car and I was soaked."

Well, it's not like you could lie about the weather, he thought. "I'll probably never get used to you…" He made a so-and-so gesture with his hand, and took a sip of his coffee.

Rowan laughed.

"And he didn't pressure you or anything, did he?" The big brother side of Caleb came out again.

"Nope." Rowan figured she'd leave out the fact that it was she who was thinking about foregoing the contraception to make love to Abel, and that it was Abel who had been the smart one. But Caleb looked like he was about to have a heart attack, so she spared him. "He wanted to take care of me," she said.

Caleb nodded. He really should give his sister more credit. Abel, too. "I should probably apologize for being rude."

"I think Abel understands." She sipped her coffee. Brother and sister sat in silence for a while. A peaceful looked crossed her face. "You know, Cay?"

"Hmm?"

"Last night was the best night's sleep I've had since I got out of the hospital." There was a smile of serenity on her face, and how could Caleb be mad at her for that? "I slept through the entire night."

He exhaled softly. "I know how hard it is for you."

Humor glittered in her eyes. "But…?"

He smirked. "I don't like you staying out all night, ok? But if you are…would you please at least let me know?"

Rowan nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry if I worried you."

"All's forgiven."

"He loves me," she told him.

Oh, boy, he thought. "What about you?"

She smiled. "I love him, too."

Caleb sometimes wondered, after all his sister had been through, how she managed to find the strength to reach out to someone like she did Abel, and let him into her heart, and let him have hers. She was definitely smarter in who she put her trust in, Caleb thought. He was the elder and he had never been in love, and had never found a girl who he could say had truly loved him for him. It actually scared him a little, letting himself be so vulnerable to a single person like that. It took a brave person to take that step. Rowan was the bravest person that Caleb knew.

xx

Later that afternoon Rowan took her scooter to Spensers to talk to Dizzy and say bye to both her and Pinkie before they left later that evening. It was Saturday and a lot of the students had already left campus for spring break. She felt a little bad that things were going so well between her and Abel while her friend was miserable because her boyfriend of some three years had cheated on her. Dizzy wasn't looking forward to going home, if only to publicly castigate David for being a two-timing shit. Rowan parked her bike and walked to Dizzy's room where Pinkie already was.

"Hey," she said.

"Well, hello," Pinkie said, smiling, "what is that sweet look on your face?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Pinkie," Rowan replied.

Even Dizzy grinned. She hopped up off the bed and closed the door. "Oh my God! Did you and Abel…"

"No!" Rowan said, blushing. "We didn't." She tugged on her earlobe.

Dizzy and Pinkie exchanged looks. "But…" Pinkie prompted, his eyes probing.

Rowan's lips twitched. "I stayed overnight as his place," – her friends opened their mouths to exclaim – "but nothing happened," Rowan hurried to say. "Jeez."

"Something happened," Pinkie insisted.

Rowan fudged. "Maybe a little…something." Her face was crimson.

Dizzy squealed and hugged her, Pinkie feigned wiping tears from his eyes.

"Well, maybe it's best you two didn't go all the way," Dizzy said solemnly. Over Christmas break, she and David had made love for the first time, which made his betrayal doubly bitter.

"I'm sorry, Diz," Rowan said.

"It's all right," she declared, putting a brave face. "When I see him he will leave our encounter manhood…less."

Pinkie winced. He was gay, but he was still a guy. "No mercy," he said supportively. "He deserves a beating. Putting it on the internet that way…" He shuddered. "So tacky."

Dizzy snorted. "He said he was drunk."

Rowan and Pinkie rolled their eyes. A terrible excuse in their opinion.

"He wants a second chance, of course," she said, tracing an idle finger on her bedspread.

"Please, tell me you are _not_ thinking of reconciling!" Pinkie exclaimed. "That would be _so_ like you. A few sweet words and you'd be buying his song and dance of contrition."

Dizzy's mouth opened in an 'o' of indignation. "I would not…" But even Rowan had an expression of uncertainty on her face which made the jilted lover trail off. "I won't," she declared. "I mean…neither of you would…?"

Rowan felt there was no excuse whatsoever for such a betrayal. And no forgiveness for it. You didn't have to hate the person, but someone who was capable of doing that to you did not love you. How could you ever go back to someone who violated your trust, mocked your connection, and then had the gall to turn around and tell you that their slip meant nothing and that it was _you_ they loved? It made no sense to her.

"No," Rowan shook her head.

"I really don't think so," Pinkie agreed. "I would never be able to trust him again. And relationships are hard enough without constantly worrying if he's doing something behind your back."

About an hour later Rowan said bye to them and headed for Reid and Tyler's dorm. Tyler answered.

"If you want to say bye to Dizzy, she's about to leave," Rowan said.

Tyler's face immediately lit up, he looked down the hall not wanting to seem too eager.

"Oh, go, baby boy!" Reid yelled at him. "You know you want to!"

Tyler flashed him a dirty look but anticipation was still in his pretty blue eyes. Rowan closed the door behind him and sat on Reid's bed. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, flipping through a comic book. He had a perturbed look on his face, and his greeting was short and curt.

"Are you okay?" Rowan asked.

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" he replied, not looking at her.

"Are you still upset from last night?"

"I wasn't upset," he replied shortly.

There was a bite to his tone. He hardly ever talked to her like this, and if he did it was because he was mad about something else, but not at her.

"You're mad at me for something," she stated. She could feel it.

Now Reid looked at her. His blue eyes were sharp. Angry. Reid took her in. She was wearing blue jeans, a light green, long-sleeved shirt, and a black jean jacket. Her glossy hair was pulled back into a ponytail, so he could see all of her face, flawless light brown skin. Her full, cherry lips, arched eyebrows, long, thick lashes and those autumn eyes of hers.

"I'm not mad at you," he said, lying through his teeth. He was. He was seething.

"Well, if that's how you're going to be…" Rowan stood up, making to leave.

"How could you do it, Rowan?" he blurted.

She turned around, lost. "Do what?"

He swung himself out of bed, standing close to her now, towering over her even in bare feet. "You stayed with him," he accused in a low voice.

Rowan felt like someone smacked her in the forehead. "That's what this is about? You're mad because I stayed overnight with Abel?" she retorted indignantly. "You've got to be kidding me."

"This isn't a joke, damn it!" he snapped. "How could you do that?"

Rowan took a step back to collect herself, a look of utter disbelief on her face. "You have the nerve to stand there and act like I've done something wrong, while you have done the same thing, I don't know how many times!"

"That's different," he ground out.

"How?" she demanded.

"It just…is!" he exclaimed. Reid's face turned red and he had to turn around. He furiously ran his fingers through his hair.

"Why would you try to make me feel bad about doing something with someone I love, Reid?" she asked him.

He was sucker-punched. Slowly, he turned to face her. "You love him?"

"Yes, I love him. He loves me, too."

"He told you that?" he inquired dubiously.

"Yeah, he did," she replied.

He scoffed. "Before or after?"

Rowan's eyes popped in fury. But it melted into something else and tears filled her eyes. "You don't think a guy could just love me without wanting to have sex with me?" she asked, voice quivering.

Reid could maybe stand her anger for a while. But never her tears. "That's not what I meant," he said, coming down from his high horse.

"Then why are you mad?" she asked him, plainly hurt. "You're always mad when you think I might have done something with a guy. And I've never been remotely serious with a guy but Hunter."

Oh, this had seriously snowballed. _Nice going, Reid._ She stepped away from him when he tried to reach out to her. "You wouldn't be a bad person, Rowan, I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what did you mean!" she said, a tear escaping.

"I just…think that…you hardly know him," he fumbled.

She bit her bottom lip. "I know he loves me. I know that the first time he kissed me he didn't go off kissing someone else later on. I know that I'm the only person he wants." More hot tears cascaded down her cheeks, then more.

"Hey, you guys-" Tyler walked in, but went silent when he noted the tension in the room. Then Rowan crying. He knew instantly that Reid must have said something about her staying overnight at Abel's. His amiable face instantly went hard and he shot a look of anger at his friend who had the sense to look shamed for whatever dumbass thing he'd said.

Rowan wiped away her tears, and tried to smile at Tyler. "Did you catch Dizzy?"

Tyler nodded.

Reid cleared his throat. "I-"

"I have to go," Rowan blurted. "Bye."

Tyler thought about going after her but knew she needed to be alone. The door shut and it was only him and Reid.

"What the hell did you say to her, Reid?" Tyler demanded angrily.

He sighed and hung his head. "She took it the wrong way."

"Bullshit," Tyler snapped. "You shouldn't have even said anything. You're the biggest fucking idiot sometimes!" he yelled.

Reid's face turned red. When Tyler was mad he was really mad. He opened his mouth to say something back, but baby boy cut him off.

"I mean, what the hell is your problem? She's happy so you piss all over it?"

"That's not what I was trying to do!" he defended himself staunchly.

"That's right. You're just a jealous dumbass," Tyler spat. "You can screw around with whoever, but she kisses a guy and you're up in arms!"

"She stayed overnight with him!" Reid exclaimed. "You didn't like it either!"

"Beside the point!" Tyler rejoined. "What the hell makes you think they even had sex?"

Reid gave his friend a look that said he had to be the most idiotic person on the planet. "Please, you think Abel the werewolf," – Tyler rolled his eyes – "didn't try anything _all night_ and they just slept in the same bed doing _nothing_?"

"Dizzy said they didn't do anything," Tyler said. A tidbit he hadn't asked for, but Dizzy seemed to think that it was something he needed to be assured of for his peace of mind as Rowan's "older brother."

"Rowan told her that?" Reid asked.

Tyler didn't answer. "This shit is going to backfire on you, Reid," he said seriously. "Everything you do, the flirting, the screwing around-"

"I've been celibate for seven months!"

"Wow!" Tyler said with mock awe. "A whole seven months!" He shook his head a little. "You can't just tell Rowan you love her and expect her to feel the same way, and you'll just be together, Reid."

"I don't need a sermon, baby boy," he said bitterly.

"You need to hear it," Tyler said. "You're a good friend, but you can't expect anyone, even Rowan, to just be with you because you say you love her. The way you are with girls doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in your ability to stay faithful. You'd have to prove something first."

Reid was giving Tyler a begrudging understanding.

"And making Rowan feel like crap because she found someone who wants to be with _only her_, isn't the greatest way to show you care about her either."

Reid's lips were pursed, he looked sideways at Tyler. "You done?"

Tyler let out a breath. "Yeah."

The blond son plopped on his bed, planting a remorseful head in his hands. He felt like a royal shit for making Rowan cry, that hadn't been what he'd set out to do at all. He didn't even know what he had set out to do. Reid only knew that when Caleb had called Tyler to ask if he knew where Rowan was he had gone from worried, and then angry when Caleb called not long after to say that he'd found her and she'd been at Abel's.

In a very rare admission, Reid muttered, "I screwed up."

"No, really?" Tyler rebutted sarcastically. He finished packing his bag for the week he'd be out of the dorms. Reid's clothes were still strewn all over the place, dirty and clean. It was a terse silence, Tyler still fuming over Reid's stupidity; Reid berating himself for his stupidity, and hurting Rowan.

"So," Reid broke the silence, a smarmy smirk on his face, "did you and Diz have a goodbye quickie?"

Tyler threw a shirt at him.

xx

Asher prowled the woods. He knew they were here, he could smell them. He may be younger than them but he was a damned good tracker, and hunter. When you looked over your shoulder pretty much all your life, you had to be. It was only around nine-thirty, so this little reunion was happening earlier than usual. Asher had killed two of Levi Marrok's informants, but the old werewolf still sent out more. Trying to trap him. But it wasn't happening. The only way he would set foot or paw back in Alaska was if Levi Marrok was dead…or to see Amelia again. He wondered if Levi would ever send Amelia's dad here. Asher wondered if she still thought about him like he did her.

He quickly shook those thoughts away. He had to concentrate. He couldn't ignore the threats around him like his brother Abel. His little brother who was just falling deeper in love with his girlfriend by the minute. Not that Asher blamed him, Rowan was a catch, but that didn't bar the fact that Abel's life, and Rowan's if he stayed, was in danger. Asher still hadn't been able to get a clear decision out of his brother on the subject of getting out of Ipswich. He knew Abel was waiting until he absolutely had to. Well, Asher had a feeling the absolute was coming. Maybe it was time to talk to Rowan about this, one on one.

Asher stopped in his tracks. He heard something. The brush of paws against the damp earth. It had rained like a bitch last night. Asher moved deeper into the shadows, giving attention to all sides. He crouched in the brush, watching.

There! Movement on four legs. He willed the breeze to blow against him, so it would take the scent of the stranger to his nostrils. Patience. The wind was favoring him tonight. A werewolf. Who did not know exactly where Asher was.

The younger werewolf circled around, ready to take the other by surprise. Silent and unbidden as death, Asher pounced and ripped a gash in the other's scruff. A deep whine of pain sounded, but the other werewolf was up on his legs in seconds facing Asher.

_Damn you_, he snarled.

_Which replacement are you?_ Asher asked.

They circled one another.

_You are in deep shit_, the stranger told him. _Broken one too many laws._

Asher snorted, vapor emitting from his nostrils like a dragon. _Why should I care about your laws? Your leader doesn't._

_Your leader, too._

_Never my leader. He killed my mother and my father._

_You killed your mother! _the stranger growled._ In a violent rage._

Asher's flews twitched, baring white, sharp canines._ Levi Marrok is a murderer._

_Ungrateful wretch! He took you in, even though you are a Halfling! And you corrupt your brother with your ways._

Asher's hairs rose like porcupines on his back._ What do you know of Abel?_

_He consorts with a human._

Then they knew. Levi knew about Abel and Rowan.

_That human has strong ties to this little town. Don't take that for granted, _Asher warned.

_Are you threatening me? _he snapped his teeth.

_Just a suggestion, _Asher replied._ Does Levi know about it? I bet he's displeased._

_He is angered._

_I'm sure in his sickly state that can't be good. _Asher was pleased to see the flash of uncertainty in his enemy's eyes. He was wondering how much Asher knew.

_He…is improving_, the stranger hedged. _He has suggested he might travel here himself, to make peace with you in the flesh._

Humor glittered in Asher's wolfen eyes. _Peace._ _Go back home and tell him I forgive him, and leave me be._

_Abel was to return with you._

_He won't, _Asher told him tersely_. It's a pointless mission. _They were still circling, and Asher was growing tired of this aimless chatter. _I know what Levi really wants. And he will not get it. His ruse is weak. Instead of sending out incompetent fools to do his dirty work, he should come here himself!_

The stranger growled, baring his teeth. _Insolent pup!_

_A pup that has gotten the better of two of your kind. They whimpered like puppies before I ripped their throats out._

The werewolf attacked, which was what Asher had wanted. He wanted him in a fury while he fought to cloud his judgment and tactical sense. Asher got a swipe at the werewolf's shoulder, carving deep lacerations into his body. The impact had the werewolf rolling, and he hit his head on a large rock. Asher took that chance to go for the kill. He leaped, landing above his foe with his teeth biting into the other's throat.

_He'll come for you,_ the fallen werewolf declared.

_Good._ Asher ripped out his throat.

He went about digging a hole, pushing the werewolf into it, then filling it once again. He shifted back to his biped form and stretched. He was sweaty and bloody, dirty. So now Levi Marrok would come once this buried wretch didn't report back tonight. The reaping was finished, now Asher had only to wait for the harvest.


	14. The Harvest

**XIV. The Harvest**

_One generation passeth away,  
and another generation cometh,__  
but the earth abideth forever.  
Ecclesiastes 1:4_

Two nights later Asher decided it was time to inform his younger brother of Levi Marrok's impending arrival. As usual, he didn't bother to call, but since he heard laughing and talking inside, he did knock.

Abel's smile faded when he saw the grim visage of his brother standing in front of him. He looked behind him, then back at his brother.

"Bad time?" Asher asked.

"Rowan's here," Abel said.

"Ah."

"Can't avoid saying 'hi' without being rude, brother," Abel told him, standing aside to let Asher in.

Rowan was in the small kitchen mixing something that smelled pretty damned good. She turned around, smiling. "I see the resemblance," she said. Rowan wiped her hands on a cloth, and held out her hand. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Likewise," Asher said, returning the grin. She was even smaller standing up close. Rowan wore jeans, and an HSUS t-shirt. His dark eyes became slits, and he sniffed perceptibly. And he looked down at his boot, which a small animal was sniffing curiously.

"This is Bruce Lee," Rowan said, picking up the furry creature.

"What is that, a ferret?" Asher asked, peering at it intently.

"He stowed away in my truck before we knew he was there," Abel said, taking the animal and putting him on his shoulder.

Asher smirked at the domestic scene. The girlfriend cooking, the boyfriend being solicitous of the girlfriend's pets. Abel wasn't going to like what he had come here to say. But maybe he would listen better if Rowan was around to hear it.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Rowan asked. "There's plenty."

Abel was getting broody. "She's making chili."

"I love chili," Asher said, grinning.

"Great!" Rowan went into the kitchen, washed her hands before returning to the food. "It'll be ready soon."

Abel invited his brother to follow him into the small living room. He sat down on the couch and took a sip from a can of Coke that was on the coffee table, glaring at his brother warily.

"I didn't know she was going to be here," Asher spoke.

Abel looked like he didn't believe him. "You'd have come anyway."

"That is true," the older brother replied with a glimmer of humor. He sauntered over to the window, peeked out. "Nice night, huh?"

"You don't do small talk well."

But they were saved. "Dinner's ready!" Rowan called.

Five minutes later they were all comfortably seated at the small round table with bowls of hot chili, drinks, and tortillas on the side.

"This is great," Asher complimented sincerely.

Rowan blushed a little. "Thanks."

"It's her secret recipe," Abel said, warmth in his eyes.

They talked while they ate. Asher, at Abel's expense, narrated some of his younger brother's exploits and embarrassing moments to Rowan, while Abel counterattacked with some of Asher's less than smooth moves without venturing into Levi Marrok territory. They were coming down from a full bout of laughter when their bellies told them they were full.

Rowan was collecting their plates and putting them into the sink. Abel stopped her. He didn't have a dishwasher and he told her he'd do them later. "The cook doesn't clean," he said, something he often reminded her of accompanied with a soft kiss on the cheek.

Asher was patiently waiting in the living room. Abel couldn't stall forever. Meanwhile, the ferret was doing a tribal dance around his legs as if Asher was a bonfire sans the flames.

"You are one strange creature," he muttered to the animal. "It's not normal you know."

"You're talking to him already," Abel teased, coming into the room.

"I'm half-animal, I can," Asher rejoined.

Rowan laughed. It tapered off and she cleared her throat. "I can go outside while you two talk."

The brothers exchanged glances, Asher held Abel's until the younger sighed in forfeit.

"No, you should hear this."

Of course Rowan knew it couldn't be good news. She sat next to Abel on the couch, and Asher began to speak. He had tracked one of Levi Marrok's spies in the forest two nights ago, and before he killed him, the spy had said that Levi Marrok was coming here, to Ipswich.

"He knows about the two of you," Asher said, not unkindly.

Abel squeezed Rowan's hand, cursing silently. "But he didn't say when."

Asher shook his head. "But if he didn't report back that night, then Levi knows." He wondered how much Abel had told Rowan. About Levi's pride and how he wouldn't think twice about hurting her.

"I can hide you," Rowan said, including Asher. "Make him think you're gone. Would he leave eventually?" she asked Asher.

"I don't know," he replied. "But we can't hide forever. And if I killed him, he has more allies in Alaska who would come here to avenge him."

"We can't run forever either," Abel said between clenched teeth. He stood up. "I'll talk to him, make him understand."

"Do you honestly think he would listen?" Asher asked. "After everything he's done? He's hell bent on killing me. And if I leave on my own, that's fine. But he won't accept Rowan." He looked at Rowan with sympathy. "He would kill you-"

"Damn it, Asher!" Abel took a step forward, just to stop him from finishing that sentence.

"It's all right," Rowan said. It wasn't as if she were a stranger to people wanting her dead.

But Abel was glaring at his brother. Eyes saying that he was not going to leave Rowan. He didn't want to run, but staying put the girl he loved in mortal danger. It was a catch-22 of dire proportions. He sincerely thought just then that he could kill his father. But if he did, or if Asher did, it would bring Levi's people here. Run or stay?

"If we lured him away from here, and killed him somewhere else, they would have a harder time finding us," Asher said. "But that would still involve leaving here."

Rowan knew this wasn't truly about her, but the idea of Abel leaving, his life in danger, cut her deep. She didn't want him to leave, did not want to be without him. She loved him too much.

Asher simmered down, and spoke as sincerely as he had ever in his life. "Abel, we don't have much time. We kill him here and we leave, but that gives him a chance to…" His eyes flicked to Rowan. "Or we leave, and he follows. He might not find us. And I know we can't run forever. But our options are severely limited."

Rowan was deep in her own mind, thinking of ways to save them. "I can scry for him," she spoke. "To see how close he is."

"Scry?" Asher asked.

"I have the implements at home," Rowan said, thinking fast now.

"Rowan, you don't-"

She interrupted Abel. "There are so many 'ifs' right now, wouldn't it be good to have something certain?"

Abel worried his jaw, then glanced at his brother.

"I don't know anything about magic, but if you think it'll work," Asher said.

Rowan nodded. "It might. I've never seen your dad…Do you have something of his, Abel?"

Abel didn't answer for a second, but then he nodded reluctantly as if he were ashamed of having something of his father's. "Okay."

----

Rowan saw stars veiled by sheer clouds of grayish-white. She could feel the chill of the air-conditioner, the silence, the slight turbulence of the plane, someone asking if he wanted a drink…

Abel and Asher saw Rowan's eyes flash a brilliant white. Her eyelids started to flicker like she was possessed, and Abel could take no more. He shook her out of her trance until the light dissipated from her eyes. She was standing up on weak knees, so Abel guided her over to the sitting half of her apothecary.

The three of them were in her sanctum sanctorum. They'd driven to her house in silence, and neither brother had asked questions as she'd prepared the mirror, water, and amethyst crystal for scrying. Rowan had then lit two candles, took a breath, and gazed into the oval mirror that had been doused with water while she held Abel's father's pocket watch in her hand. The vision came five minutes later.

"He's on a plane, coming here," Rowan finally said once the high-pitched siren in her head had quieted.

Asher cursed under his breath. He started pacing.

Abel was more concerned for her at the moment. She had broken out into a cold sweat, and lost some color in her face.

"You didn't tell me it would take so much out of you," he chastised gently.

"I didn't either," she replied. "It never has before." And it hadn't. This was odd, even to her.

"Your eyes went white," he said.

She looked at him, puzzled. "What?"

"Your eyes," he repeated. "Like how your brother's eyes go black, yours went white."

Rowan was trying to grasp what Abel was saying. "That's…never happened before."

"Ever?"

Rowan shook her head, fell back against the couch. Abel got up and got her a glass of water then sat back down beside her.

"Well?" Asher asked, having gone to stand by the large window in the room that looked out into the vast garden. It was pretty here, he thought.

Abel still felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. Rowan sat up, put the half-empty glass on the table in front of her. Her brothers were out at Nicky's tonight, which had afforded them some privacy for scrying. And her mom was in her bedroom.

"He'll be here by morning," Asher said, getting their attention. He sat across from them on the opposite couch. His posture belied his calm tone. He was leaning towards them, forearms rested on his thighs, his fingers laced, eyes intent. "I'm sorry, but the safest bet is to leave."

Rowan did not offer an opinion, she felt this was between the two of them.

"Asher, I respect your judgment," Abel began, "but I'm going to talk to Levi."

Asher grimaced, but held his tongue.

"But if you want to leave, I understand," Abel said.

The older brother sighed, and ran a hand down a tired face. "You want to call the airport and ask them when his flight is coming in?"

"He's on a private jet," Rowan blurted. "You could call the airports around here and ask them if they have any private flights coming in."

"You really want to do this?" Asher asked his brother.

He sighed. "I need to."

----

Three hours later they were at a private airstrip where Levi's flight would be landing in minutes. They had parked a ways away, Rowan had cloaked their presence with a little glamour spell so they wouldn't be seen. Abel saw that it wasn't wearing her out too much like the scrying had. Abel had told his brother that he didn't need to come with him considering the danger, and Rowan had insisted on going with him because he shouldn't be here alone.

The three stood in the shadows for fifteen minutes before they saw the jet in the sky, descending, landing on the strip, the loud whir of the contraption breaking the stillness of the night. The jet eventually shut down, the door was opened and a man walked down the stairs.

Rowan felt Abel go still. Even from the distance she could see the wide set of Levi's shoulders, his graceful gait, determined face. She could also feel Asher's anxiety. She grabbed onto Asher's hand and squeezed, and after a brief hesitation was met with his own squeeze.

"Be careful," Rowan said to Abel.

He nodded, almost mesmerized, ready to speak with the man who had told him he was mortally ill, sent him across the country to retrieve a brother that had been wronged by both of them. The glamour began to wear off of Abel the closer he got to his father. It was almost like he had appeared out of nowhere by the time the first person saw him, which then caught Levi's attention.

An expression of almost comical shock crossed the older man's face. "Son?"

I'm not your son, Abel wanted to shout. They were five feet apart now. "Yeah," Abel replied after he found his voice.

"Well…" Levi smiled.

"You look well," Abel said dryly. "Must have been a miracle."

The smile on Levi's face flickered and died. "I can see you've spoken with your brother," he said disdainfully. "We need to talk, Abel."

"We do."

Levi gestured towards the waiting limo. After a moment's hesitation, and a circumspect glance where Asher and Rowan were waiting, he followed his father and got into the limo. The lights were fairly dim, and father and son sat across from one another on opposite seats.

Abel stared at the man he had called father for the past seventeen years. He seemed different in this light of consciousness. The strong jaw and sharp planes of his face that Abel had once taken for stature and strength now looked cruel and deceptive. The eyes he had once thought keen, wise and intelligent looked sly and deceitfully cunning.

"You killed Mom," Abel blurted.

"Did your brother tell you that?" Levi asked, betraying no guilt or affirmation to his son's accusation.

"He told me everything."

"And you believed him." Levi shook his head in disappointment, putting on a look of sympathy. "Your brother was always a good liar."

"He's not the liar," Abel growled, "you are." He sat forward. "You lied about everything. You murdered Mom, you killed the man she loved," – Levi quickly tamped down his sneer – "Asher's father." He took a breath. "You're sick. Depraved."

Levi's face was an emotionless mask. But his dark eyes gleamed angrily.

"And what did you come here for?" Abel demanded. "What did your spies tell you?"

Levi took his time replying, stretching out the already taut silence. "You've taken up with a human. But that can be dismissed so long as you return home with me."

Abel laughed caustically. "After everything you've done, you think I would go home with you?" He shook his head. "You can go to hell."

"Do not speak to me like that!" Levi snarled. "I am your father, you will show me some respect."

"You are not my father! And you don't deserve a damned bit of respect!"

"This has gone far enough," Levi said. "We can stay here while they refuel the jet, and we'll go home."

"No. I'm not leaving with you."

"You want to stay with your brother? He's probably already abandoned you."

"He wouldn't abandon me," Abel said with conviction.

"And you don't want to leave your human," Levi mused, a mocking quality to his voice that made the hairs rise on Abel's neck.

"Keep her out of this," Abel hissed, fire in his eyes.

"How humans so easily bewitch the minds of superior species I'll never know," Levi pondered.

"We're not superior," Abel said.

"And you're already degrading what you are, Abel."

"Just leave," Abel told him. "Asher wants nothing to do with you, and neither do I. We never have to see each other again." Deep down he hoped his father would bite, turn tail, and get back on the jet to Alaska.

"I cannot let you sully our bloodline," Levi said. "And Asher…he is an abomination to our kind."

Abel saw the madness in his father's eyes for the first time. Asher was right, not that Abel hadn't believed him, he just hadn't wanted to. He felt the limo move as someone got behind the driver's seat. The engine started. Father and son's eyes met at the same moment. Abel bolted for the door, but Levi was faster and kicked him back. Abel's back slammed into the side of the limo. The vehicle was moving, picking up speed.

The younger recovered and lunged at his father. His claws came out and he took a vicious swipe at his father's face, feeling skin and sinew rip beneath his claws, and then the coppery, hot scent of blood filled his nostrils. Levi cried out in anger, pain. Abel took the spare moment to open the car door and leap out. He tucked and rolled on the rough asphalt.

"Abel!" Rowan cried out for him.

Rowan and Asher had begun to run after the limo when it had started to move. Rowan knelt beside him. She realized that Asher was not in sight. She saw the heap of his clothing not far away.

"He went after Levi," Abel said.

They heard the screech of tires, then a howl. The limo's headlights shone like a beacon. The door opened and the driver got out, then Levi. The driver shifted and went after Asher. When Levi saw that Asher was getting the better of the driver, two seconds later killing him, Levi shifted and Asher and him met in a clash of teeth and nails.

Levi was bigger, and despite being older he kept up with Asher. Asher was getting beat.

"I can't let him kill him," Abel said. He looked at Rowan for understanding, and she nodded slightly.

Abel shifted and ran, stopping his father from taking a chunk out of Asher's jugular. Rowan could only watch, heart beating rapidly in fear. Levi was hesitating to attack Abel who was crouched in front of his brother's prone body, ready to defend. Levi made a choice and attacked his son. The fight was rabid in nature.

Rowan kept in the shadows while she made her way towards Asher. She kneeled by him. He was still breathing, though shallowly. She stroked his scruff soothingly.

"Can you change back?" she asked quietly. "I can't carry you like this."

Asher let out a puff of air and she knew he was chuckling.

"This isn't funny!" she hissed.

It all went fast. Asher jerked, Rowan rotated to look behind her. Levi was lunging at her. Before Asher leaped at him, she felt a searing pain in her forearm that had her seeing stars and was thrown back, her head thudding against the ground.

In a haze, Asher and Abel shifted back. Both were bloody and dirty.

"Are you all right?" Abel asked. He held her forearm gently. "Shit. We need to get you to a hospital."

"I'm okay," she said, though she felt light headed, saw stars, ready to pass out. She assessed his injuries through blurry vision; some lacerations, a bruise here and there, but Abel was in better shape than she was, oddly enough. She turned to Asher.

There were deep lacerations in his back, his thigh, bite marks near his neck, but they were already healing at that rapid pace that werewolves healed at. Abel swept her up in his arms.

"Put me down, I can walk," she insisted.

Asher had run back to get their clothes. He ripped a t-shirt and wrapped it around Rowan's arm.

"Is he…dead?" Rowan asked.

Abel had felt his father's skull crack and cave in against the asphalt. If he could have survived that, even being a werewolf, he didn't know.

Rowan's world started to fade out. It was ridiculous, this fainting act. She struggled to remain conscious. She fought hard…

"Abel?" she managed his name.

Rowan thought she heard him tell her that he loved her, and that it was okay. They were going to get her to a hospital.

"No…" she murmured.

"Shh," Abel was saying. "You're safe."

"What the hell?"

Rowan's eyelids flickered. "Hunter?"

The world went black.

* * *

**It's nearing the end. Already. **


	15. Do What You Have to Do

**XV. Do What You Have to Do**

_The yearning to be near you__  
I do what I have to do__  
I know I can't be with you__  
I do what I have to do__  
And I have the sense to recognize that__  
I don't know how to let you go  
-Sarah McLachlan_

Rowan had sidestepped quite a few questions from the nurse about how she'd gotten the cut on her arm. She used a little magic to get the nurse to let it go. She also hadn't been imagining things when she'd heard Hunter's voice. Although the immediate threat had been over, Hunter had come to her because she had been in danger. Apparently, her Shepherd could sense danger around her anytime, not just when evil warlocks were trying to assassinate her.

She knew that Abel had updated Hunter about the events while she'd been getting stitched up, so there wasn't much for her to tell. What she didn't know was that Gabriel had appeared, taken Abel and Asher to the side and explained a few vague future events that the sorcerer knew of. She was surprised but pleased to see Gabriel in the waiting room. She guessed that he must have been with Hunter when Hunter had gotten "the call."

"How you feeling _pischouette_?" he asked in that flowing French accent of his.

Rowan shrugged, glancing at the bandage on her left forearm which Levi had scratched a five inch laceration into. The nurse said it wouldn't leave a scar, but it would be painful for a few days. It took quite a few stitches.

The four of them were oddly solemn, she noted. Abel especially.

"I'll take Rowan home," he said, putting his arm around her.

"I need to get back to my place and…arrange some things," Asher said carefully.

"Do you need a ride?" Abel asked, including the three of them.

"No," Asher replied.

Gabriel half-smiled. "I have other methods of transportation." And Hunter would go with Gabriel.

Abel nodded. "Ready?" he asked Rowan.

She nodded.

The ride was silent, and Rowan was worried about Abel. She chocked up his quiet to Levi Marrok's death, which Asher had confirmed.

"I'm sorry," she said gently.

"Don't be," he said, giving her a small smile, rife with relief that she was alive, and rue that he had gotten her into the situation in the first place. "It's odd but…I don't feel badly for what I did."

"It wasn't intentional."

"I know."

He thought about what Gabriel had told him and his brother back at the clinic.

"If you stay…" the French man had said.

"It puts Rowan in trouble, I know," Abel had interrupted.

Gabriel had stared at him in sympathetic silence. "_Oui_, but…if you stay, you will die."

Abel had been shocked into silence. "What…?"

"My grandmère, you know," Gabriel had told him.

"What about her?" Asher had asked.

"She's a seer," Abel had explained absently. He turned back to Gabriel. "That's my fate?"

"_Je suis désolé_," Gabriel had said. "But it will end," he assured them. "You will meet more of your kind that your father has wronged. And things will be turned right."

"More people?" Asher had asked.

Gabriel nodded. "This journey…for the two of you…it is inevitable." Ah, he could already feel the pain Rowan would endure, and this good man before him. But Gabriel also knew that Rowan's path lay with another individual.

"And going back on it ensures my brother's death?" Asher had asked.

Gabriel did not answer, but his deep eyes said yes.

"What about Rowan?" Abel had inquired in a near-choked whisper. "I can't…"

_I can't_, Abel thought now as he neared Rowan's house. _I can't! I love her, I can't…_

When he pulled up in front of her house, he cut the engine; he might as well have cut his heart too.

"Abel?" she whispered. "What will happen now?"

His hands gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles lost their color. "I don't know."

But Rowan thought he did. "Will they…come here?"

Abel swallowed a jagged lump in his throat. "Yes," he replied hoarsely.

Rowan pried his hand from the steering wheel, which was easy because he gripped her hands as tightly as she did his. "I love you," she told him.

"I love you, too, Rowan," he said.

Abel kissed her, kissed her with all he had. And it was bittersweet for Rowan, because it almost felt like a goodbye kiss. And Abel knew if he stayed, he would die. Gabriel hadn't said when. Abel was willing to forfeit his life if it meant he could stay with Rowan. But he knew Rowan would be devastated over his death as much as he would have been if she died. What was fair? What was the better, the right, decision?

----

Asher was waiting in Abel's apartment when the younger brother got home. A duffel bag of Asher's things was by the door, and on the couch was an empty duffel bag.

"You know what we have to do," Asher said.

"I don't think I can," Abel answered. He stood desolate in the living room, like he was marooned on an island. To his surprise, Asher pulled him into a tight hug.

"Abel," he said, cupping his younger brother's head in his hands. "You know. You'll die if you stay here. Can you change the future by staying?"

He didn't answer, because he didn't have one.

"You heard what Gabriel said. There are more of us out there, and they need retribution as much as we do. _Not_ revenge. _Retribution_." And Gabriel had told him something else, something for his ears only. _Don't forget Amelia_, the French man had said with an enigmatic smile.

Abel squeezed back tears that threatened to escape behind his eyelids.

"Goddamn it," he cursed. "Goddamn it!"

----

Hunter had gone back to Rowan's place after talking more with Gabriel. It was two in the morning, and the rest of the guys had returned from Nicky's and were crashing at Caleb's house. Hunter went into Rowan's room and closed the door, she was sleeping, exhausted from the day, though it was a fitful sleep. He sat by her on the bed, unable to keep himself from watching her in repose.

Caleb knocked softly on the door.

"Hey," he said. Then he saw the bandage on Rowan's arm. "What happened?" he asked, coming further into the room.

Hunter looked deeply at his brother. He kissed Rowan on the forehead, left the room with Caleb, closing the door quietly. The guys were munching in the kitchen, but they felt the solemnity and heaviness in Hunter when he and Caleb entered. Hunter asked them to sit down, and then calmly explained the situation to them.

"So…he's leaving?" Caleb asked.

Hunter shrugged. "I don't know what his decision will be."

"But he'll die if he stays," Tyler repeated.

"That's what Nana told Gabriel," Hunter iterated.

Pogue fell back in his chair. "Rowan…"

They were all silent, knowing what she would endure. Reid's quiet was the deepest, the most still. It was two days ago that he and Rowan had had their fight, and in the interim she hadn't spoken to him, not that he blamed her. Reid had a feeling even a sincere apology wouldn't rectify the grievous mistake he had made. But no matter how jealous he had been of Abel, he would never have wished this on Rowan, never. He wouldn't even have wished this on Abel. The decision the werewolf would have to make. Reid would be tearing his hair out if he had to choose between either living, or leaving Rowan. Then he would think about how sad Rowan would be if he died. Because what did you do if the person you loved was your life?

----

Rowan woke up early with a feeling of dread in her heart. It wasn't even five in the morning, but she knew something was coming. Ignoring the ache in her arm she put on her slippers and ran downstairs, Bubbe, Ernie and Bruce Lee hot at her heels. She flung open the double doors of the mansion just as Abel and Asher were coming up the driveway. And Rowan knew.

The truck stopped a few feet away from her, and she stood still as stone as Abel got out of the truck and walked towards her. She didn't even notice her brothers coming to stand outside the door.

"Abel…?" her voice quivered.

It pained him to look at her, her beautiful face in a mask of agony which mirrored his.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"I can protect you here," she said.

He shook his head. Abel was breathing hard, each breath labored and deliberate. He pulled her into his arms, so tight he held her. She clung to him, memorizing his scent, trying to take in the warmth of his body so it would stay with her as long as possible.

"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do," he whispered.

She nodded against his chest. "I don't want this to happen."

"Me neither."

They heard the car door open and slam shut. Asher walked towards them.

"Thank you," he said to Rowan.

She tried to smile at him, but wasn't sure how successful the attempt was. Rowan hugged him anyway.

Caleb, Hunter, Pogue, and Tyler walked down the front stairs and shook hands with both Abel and Asher.

"Thanks for being what you are to my sister," Caleb said just so Abel could hear. "You made her smile more than anything else could have."

Abel nodded.

Reid was last. There was genuine regret in his blue eyes. "Good luck," he told him.

"Thanks." Abel's dark eyes flicked to Rowan then back at Reid. "You'll take care of her, won't you?"

Reid couldn't hide the shutter of surprise on his face. Abel's smile was small and knowing. He knew Reid loved her like he did.

"Yeah," Reid finally said.

It was Abel and Rowan again; all the others had faded into the background. This was goodbye, wasn't it? Rowan couldn't stop her tears. She made no sound, but her cries were screaming throughout her body. They were just holding each other, rooted to the ground.

"Abel," Asher said, but not unkindly.

"I love you," he told her.

She sniffled. "I love you, too."

He kissed her hard, as she did him.

It was like forcing two magnets apart. Abel walked backwards to the car, never taking his eyes off of her. Rowan was shaking, the morning suddenly colder, grayer. The engine started like a blast, and Abel had to grip the seat to keep himself from bolting.

"Don't look back," Asher said, as they drove away.

But Abel's head was in his hands, his fingers threaded tightly in his hair. His eyes burned with unshed tears, and his entire body shook. There were so many things he wanted to say to her. She had brought life back to him. He'd been desolate when he had left Alaska and came here to Ipswich, disillusioned with the concept of trust, family, and love. But Rowan, with one touch, one glance, made him feel like those things existed, and in the end, he believed that they did. Rowan had restored a sense of faith in him that things could be better, get better; you just had to keep trying, even when you didn't want to anymore. There were no words to express his undying gratitude.

He took a framed picture out of his duffel bag. It was of him and Rowan at the spring dance. His was arm around her, their shoulders touching as close as they could get, heads together. Their smiles and happiness forever captured in this one image.

He shut his eyes tight, and two hot tears coursed down his cheeks.

----

The minutes and hours ticked away. After Abel was out of sight, Rowan had stood there in the driveway for what seemed like hours before her brother had gently taken her inside. He had tucked her back into bed like a baby and stayed with her while she cried herself to sleep.

She woke up around noon, heavy with grief. She showered and dressed in jeans and hoodie, went downstairs. Her brothers were talking in the sitting room.

"Well, he would have died if he stayed," Pogue was saying.

Her gasp shocked them all; they hadn't known she'd been listening.

"What?" she said.

They all looked at one another uncertainly.

"Say that again, Pogue," Rowan demanded.

Hunter cleared his throat and gave a truncated version of what Gabriel had told him. For Rowan, this changed everything. She bolted back up to her room, trembling with indecision. She shut the door.

----

"I'll go check on her," Caleb said ten minutes later.

What he found froze him. His sister was throwing clothes in a duffel bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked dumbly.

Rowan hadn't even noticed he'd come in the room. "I'm going with him."

It took a moment for her brother to process that. But he knew this couldn't be. His sister was suppressing hysteria, he could tell, a tide of grief that was dammed shut.

"Rowan, listen to me," he started gently.

"No, I've made up my mind," she interrupted as she zipped up the bag. "I can catch up with him."

"You don't know where he is," Caleb said.

But Rowan could track. She concentrated on something and then she merely followed the clear coil that led her to her destination. It was why she always won the Easter egg hunts when they were little.

Caleb blocked her way from her bedroom door. "You know you can't," he said.

"Move, Caleb!" Her voice was high-pitched, shrill.

He looked at her with sympathy, sadness for her pain.

"Move!" she screamed. He was made of stone when she tried to force him aside. "Goddamn it, get out of my way!"

With her screaming the other guys had come upstairs, gathering instantly what was occurring with Rowan's duffel bag hitched on her shoulder.

"Rowan," he said quietly.

She was still screaming for him to move, she beat at his chest, flung herself at him trying to take him down. But he was stronger than her. Caleb got his arms around her and held his little sister in his arms until she stilled and began to sob against his chest. Huge wracking sobs that shook his own body.

"Let me go," she cried. "You don't need me here."

"Yes, I do," he insisted, his cheek resting on her head, he didn't let up his grip. "I always need you." And he did.

Rowan shook her head. The duffel bag fell to the ground with a heavy thud. She cried in her brother's arms until her throat was raw, and her head was pounding. But nothing resonated as far and as loud and deep as the pain in her heart.

* * *

**The next chapter is the last chapter. :)**

**I hope the parting wasn't too melodramatic there.  
**


	16. Chasing Cars

**XVI. Chasing Cars**

_All that I am  
All that I ever was__  
Is here in your perfect eyes,  
__they're all I can see  
If I lay here  
If I just lay here__  
would you lie with me__  
and just forget the world?  
-Snow Patrol_

The time after spring break to the end of the school year went by in a daze. Rowan felt like she was just sleepwalking through it all. The joy had been stripped from her face, her smile was a dead bulb. The nightmares came back with a vengeance. The anxiety attacks. As if Abel had been her barrier between that and peace, and now that barrier was gone.

Rowan knew she had to go on. School, work, humane society, come home. She declined any invites for social activities, instead locking herself up in her sanctum sanctorum and scrying for Abel in her mirror. She never saw him though. The only image she got was that of a steadily moving blur which meant that Abel was alive and mobile.

At night, she would take the sweater she still had of his and hold it tightly in her arms. The fabric still smelled of him, earthy, natural. If she shut her eyes tight enough and fell deep enough into herself, she could almost imagine that he was still here.

----

Reid was packing up the last of his things from his dorm. Finals were over, now he had only to await his report card to see if he got the A's and B's his parents required before they gave him wheels. But the prospect of it wasn't as exciting as he had thought. Reid had wanted Rowan to be the first one to get a ride in the car, no matter how slow he'd have to drive to make her feel comfortable, but right now the girl he loved was too depressed to do anything but the essentials. Like breathing.

He knew Rowan had completely forgotten about their argument over spring break, and Reid knew that it was futile to apologize about it now. He had never gotten a chance, because it seemed so trite compared to weight of Abel leaving. So the only thing Reid could do to make up for his gaff was _do_, not say.

Christ, he remembered this time last year Rowan was laying in a coma. Reid wondered if she considered this worse than the car accident. In either incident, she had lost something. He hated seeing her in pain, and there wasn't much he or any of the guys could do to cheer her up.

Reid stuffed down the last of his clothing in a suitcase. He still had some books and other…

"Screw it," he muttered.

His eyes lit up and everything he needed to have gotten done yesterday was finished in two seconds today.

"Hey, you done?" Tyler asked, coming into the room. Naturally, his side of the dorm was spic and span, and all his stuff was packed in his Hummer which was waiting for Reid's junk.

"Just finished five seconds ago," Reid replied.

Tyler looked around the room, seeing everything so neatly put in their boxes, and he snorted derisively. "Lazy," he said.

"It got done, didn't it?" Reid questioned with a grin.

Tyler rolled his eyes and helped Reid carry his boxes out to the Hummer. They acknowledged the greetings they were regularly met with when walking around campus. Back and forth, they returned to the dorms for more boxes. Pinkie was kneeling down in the middle of the hallway stuffing things back into a box.

"What happened?" Tyler asked.

Pinkie scoffed. "The brute and his fellow brutes."

They both heard raucous laughter coming from Aaron Abbot's dorm. Reid turned his head and Abbot's door slammed shut of its own accord. Five seconds later there was pounding on the door, and the rattling of the knob.

Reid sauntered up to Abbot's door and said, "Technical difficulties, fellas?"

"Garwin, is that you?" Abbot yelled.

"The one and only," Reid replied.

"Let me the hell out of here!" he demanded.

Brody echoed his friend's sentiment.

"It's locked," Reid said innocently. "Do you have a key?"

"Quit fucking around!" Abbot said, pounding on the door.

Reid snickered, looking at Pinkie and Tyler. Some other people were passing by, slowing down to observe the commotion.

"Aaron and Brody wanted some extra _alone_ time together," Reid said loudly for everyone's benefit, "and they locked the door too tightly."

"Son of a bitch, Garwin! I'll get you back for this," Aaron yelled.

"Sure, sure, Abbot," Reid said. "See you next year."

He was still sniggering when he met back up with Pinkie and Tyler. Tyler had helped Pinkie with his things, and the latter had a pleased expression on his face.

"Serves him right," Pinkie said haughtily.

"Philip!" A guy entered the hallway, an exasperated expression on his face. "Where the hell have you been?"

Pinkie sighed. "I've been here, Malcolm," he answered.

"Your brother?" Reid asked, never having met Pinkie's older brother.

"Yes, my only," Pinkie said.

Malcolm and Pinkie couldn't have been more different. Malcolm had an athlete's physique and the skin tone of someone who was into outdoor activities. He had brown hair, and looked a little like Pinkie only much more masculine.

"What's the matter, got busy painting your toenails?" Malcolm sniped at his brother.

"I've already gotten my weekly pedicure," Pinkie replied, and his brother rolled his eyes.

"Give me that," he said, snatching the box from his brother. "This the last one?"

"Yes."

"Good." He looked at it. "What'd you do? Drop it?"

"It slipped," Pinkie answered dryly.

Malcolm's eyes flickered. "Who was fucking with you?"

Until then, both Reid and Tyler had thought that Malcolm was one of those intolerant brothers, but it was obvious he just didn't like anyone but him messing with his little brother, gay or not.

"Well," Pinkie said with a clap of his hands. "I will see you two next year."

"You guys gay, too?" Malcolm asked.

"No!" Reid and Tyler answered in unison.

Pinkie laughed. "They are very, very straight," Pinkie assured him. "A shame."

Malcolm snorted. "Whatever."

They left, and Reid and Tyler took the rest of Reid's stuff out to the Hummer.

"The last of it," Reid declared. He swiped Tyler's keys.

"Give me back my keys," Tyler said.

"Ah, come on! I don't have my own yet!" Reid whined, knowing baby boy wasn't going to do anything about it anyway.

Tyler grumbled but got into the passenger seat. Reid sped out of the parking lot like he actually had somewhere important to go and couldn't be bothered with the adherence of speed limits.

"You talk to Row today?" Tyler asked.

Reid shook his head. "She leaves for New Orleans tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah." He sighed. "Maybe being around Nana will make her feel better."

"Maybe," Reid said without conviction.

When they got to Reid's place they saw Reid's dad's fully restored 1967 Ford Mustang in the large driveway. It was washed and waxed, and sparkled under the sun. A big bow was on the hood with an envelope meshed in the bow. They hopped out of the Hummer and Reid ripped open the envelope.

_Reid,_

_Rowan assured us that you've met your grade requirements._

_We thought you deserved your car early for all your hard work._

_We're proud of you. Drive safely._

_Love,_

_Mom and Dad_

Tyler was reading over Reid's shoulder. "Holy…he gave you his Mustang!"

Reid was shocked into silence. He read the letter again to make sure it wasn't some kind of forgery.

"Holy shit," he said under his breath. Then he laughed, and whooped loudly. "Sweet!"

Tyler shook his head. "A classic for A's and B's."

"Hey, bite me, Baby Boy, I worked my ass off!" And he had. It was rare that Reid felt deserving of a gift, and he thought all that brain-crunching he'd done all semester had earned him this. And he had one person to thank.

----

Reid found Rowan in the garden. She was throwing a ball for Ernie primarily but Bruce Lee was running after the ball, too. Bubbe was watching the spectacle like a mother or disinterested sister who had to observe her brothers running wild. Rowan was wearing a pleated peasant skirt with blue-hues in an African print, and a double layered blue and white tank top. Her long hair blew in the wind.

Bubbe saw him first and ran over to him, leapt in his arms. Rowan's eyes followed the cat. A small smile spread on her face.

"Hi, Reid," she said.

"Hey." He walked to her, petting the cat on her cheek.

"Get all your stuff moved out?" she asked.

"Finally."

She nodded. "Pinkie called me."

Reid chuckled. "Yeah…"

"Said Aaron and Brody got mysteriously locked in their dorm room." She looked at him pointedly, but with no reprimand.

"It's an old building. Someone should really update the facilities."

Ernie brought the ball back, letting it drop at Rowan's feet. Bruce Lee rolled it away before she could get to it though.

"So…" Reid began. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"You told my parents about my grades."

"Oh, yeah," she said, as if she'd completely forgotten. Maybe she had.

"They gave me my car early. My dad's Mustang."

Even at this, Rowan looked surprised. "He gave you that? Seriously?"

Reid smiled. "Hell, yeah!" Bubbe wiggled and he let her down. "And I want to take you out first."

Rowan grimaced, and her eyes flicked away uncertainly. "You don't have to do that," she hedged.

"Ah, come on, Row!" he pleaded. "I'll drive slow, I promise." This time he gave the proper Boy Scout salute. "So slow a snail could beat me in a race."

Rowan snorted. She shifted so her weight was on her left leg, still unsure.

"I'll get down on my knees if I have to," Reid warned.

"That will not be necessary," Rowan exclaimed. She put her hands on her hips and blew out an exasperated breath. "Okay."

"Sweet!" He grabbed her wrist and tugged her to the front of the house.

She got a light jacket first. The three animals followed them. When they saw the car Reid could see them coveting it.

"No!" he said forcefully before they could take one step. "This is a classic!"

Ernie cocked his head to the side and whined.

"Row, come on!" Reid put on a plaintive expression.

"All right," Rowan sighed. "You guys. Sniffing _only_." She pointed to her nose. "Got it?"

They gave them a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the Mustang's scent. Reid watched them carefully, making sure there were no sly attempts to lift a leg to rain golden showers on his car. Reid allotted them two minutes for inspection before he kindly shooed them away.

"If you guys are good, I'll take you for a spin later on," he promised.

He opened the passenger door and with a regal swoop of his arm he indicated that this was her seat. "My lady," he said in a light English accent.

Rowan laughed, though it was short. But Reid took it as a good sign. He hopped in, started the engine, and took off at the reasonable speed he had promised. Rowan was clutching the stress ball in her hand, though not as tightly as usual. The top of the Mustang was down so they were catching the cool breeze.

"Okay?" Reid asked.

Rowan nodded.

He drove all the way to the Dells to a secluded part of the ocean. He stopped the car, ran around the front so he could open Rowan's door.

"Aren't you solicitous today," Rowan commented, amusement in her eyes.

Five minutes later they were walking along the beach. Most people would have kicked off their shoes and walked along the water's edge and let the foamy dregs of the waves lap at their feet. But Rowan never went too close to the water. They were a good fifteen feet away or so as they walked, making footprints in the sand. They didn't talk, but it was still a comfortable silence. Rowan had her hands in her jacket pockets. Reid looked at her out of the corners of his eyes. She had dark circles under her eyes that were sad and weary, although he knew she was trying to keep it light for him.

"Can we sit?" she asked after a while.

"Yeah."

She winced a little in pain as she sat on the sand, and he made a note to help her up when they left. They sat shoulder to shoulder, gazing out in the sunset. The sky was a fade of pink, orange, and purple, and the ocean looked like it went on forever. The sounds of the waves hitting the dunes in the distance carried to their ears like an offering of solace.

A soft sigh emitted from Rowan's lips and she scooched closer so she could sit between his legs and lean against him; she closed her eyes. Reid wrapped his arms around her and felt her body relax. It wasn't an act of him trying to get to her in a romantic way. He wanted to comfort her, shield her. He remembered Abel asking him to take care of her. That went to show how much better a man Abel was than him. Abel could have been selfish and asked Rowan to go with him, or wait for him until he came back, whenever that would be. Reid didn't doubt that Abel had probably considered asking Rowan to go with him, but the fact that he hadn't said something about how much more he cared for Rowan than he did for himself.

Reid rested his chin lightly atop her head. He thought back to the morning that Abel had left. Rowan screaming at Caleb to let her go, her duffel bag all packed. He'd wanted to say something but her brother had had it under control, so to speak. Her crying had torn him apart inside, and now he felt that she was back to the place she had been after the car accident.

He wanted to do right by her. It would take a while for Rowan to heal after Abel, but Reid was going to be patient. He was in love with her, and he wanted her, but what she needed right now was a friend, so that was what he was going to be. In the mean time, he would try to amend his ways a little. Because Tyler was right, if he told Rowan how he felt, she wouldn't just immediately trust him not to break her heart. He would have to show her.

Eventually Reid closed his eyes, too.

"Thank you," she said, breaking the quiet.

"For what?"

"Being here."

"I'll always be here for you, Row. I love you."

Rowan's lips curled upwards in a wistful parody of a grin. Her eyes were still closed.

"I love you, too, Reid."

THE END

* * *

**All right, that's it! Hope it was okay. There's a sequel to this planned entitled "Finding Faith". **

**It will concentrate more on Reid's trying to do right by Rowan as he wants, and Rowan's increasing power as a Keeper of the Covenant. **

**Thanks to those who continued to read and review, or just the former. Much appreciated! :)  
**


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